1,721,045 research outputs found
Survival analysis for patients with cancer in Gaza applying for Israeli permits to exit the Gaza Strip for health care: a retrospective cohort study of patients from 2008 to 2017
Background: Gaza has been under land, sea, and aerial blockade for more than 13 years, during which time Israel has continued its permit regime to control access for Palestinian patients from Gaza to health facilities in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem), Israel, and Jordan. Specific groups, such as patients with cancer, have a high need for permits owing to a lack of services in Gaza. The approval rate for patient permits to exit Gaza dropped from 94% in 2012 to 54% in 2017. We aimed to assess the effect of access restrictions due to permit denials or delays on all-cause mortality for patients with cancer from Gaza who were referred for chemotherapy, radiotherapy, or both. Methods: This study matched 17 072 permit applications for 3816 patients referred for chemotherapy, radiotherapy, or both, from Jan 1, 2008, to Dec 31, 2017, with referral data for the same period and mortality data from Jan 1, 2008, to Jun 30, 2018. We stratified survival analysis by period of first application (2008-14, 2015-17), in light of varying access to Egypt during these times. Primary analysis compared survival of patients according to their first referral decision (approved versus denied or delayed) using Kaplan-Meier methods and Cox regression. Consent for the study was granted by the Palestinian Ministry of Health, and ethical approval was granted by the Helsinki Committee of the Palestinian Ministry of Health. Findings: Mortality was significantly higher among patients who were initially unsuccessful in permit applications from 2015 to 2017 (141 events over 493 person-years, corresponding to a rate of 286 per 100 person-years) than among patients who were initially successful in the same period (375 events over 1923 person-years, corresponding to a rate of 195 per 100 person-years) with a hazard ratio of 1·45 (95% CI 1·19-1·78, p=0.0009) after adjusting for age, sex, type of procedure, and type of cancer. There was no significant difference in mortality risk between the two groups in the 2008-14 period, with a hazard ratio of 0·84 (95% CI 0·69-1·01, p=0·071). Interpretation: Barriers to patient access to health care through denied or delayed permit applications had a significant impact on mortality for patients with cancer who applied for chemotherapy, radiotherapy, or both, in the period 2015-17. Relative ease of access through Rafah from 2008 to 2014 may have mitigated the health effects of access restrictions. Funding: WHO received funding from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
The 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
“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
We 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
Study of adherence to guidelines and evidence (SAGE) : theory-based analyses of beliefs, attitudes and prescribing outcomes in British primary care
EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
We 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
We 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
Pharmacists’ attitudes and perceived barriers about community pharmacy-based cardiovascular risk screening services
Background: Community pharmacies are considered as ideal settings to provide cardiovascular risk screening (CRS). However, little is known about pharmacists’ views on providing such services in developing countries including Iran. In the present study, we evaluated the pharmacists’ attitudes and perceived barriers to providing CRS services.\ud
\ud
Methods: In a cross-sectional study, a questionnaire in three sections was developed by the investigators (attitudes, perceived barriers, and demographics). Five likert items (5 points bipolar scale) were designed to evaluate pharmacists’ attitudes about their professional role in providing CRS services in community pharmacies. Seven likert items were designed to assess the pharmacists’ perceived importance of possible barriers to providing the services. The study tool was distributed among a convenient sample of 500 pharmacists, who had participated in a national continuing education event.\ud
\ud
Results: The response rate was 44% and descriptive statistics and Chi squared test were used to analyze data. Results showed that 70.4% participants had an overall positive attitude to providing CRS services. Pharmacists who were pharmacy owner and pharmacist-in-charge simultaneously were more positive about providing CRS services. Lack of regulatory policy and compensation mechanism, limited physical space in pharmacy and time limitation were reported to be the most important barriers to providing CRS services (> 50% rated as highly important). Low human resource and time limitation were significantly associated with negative attitudes (P: 0.02 and 0.001, respectively).\ud
\ud
Conclusion: The Iranian pharmacists’ attitudes seem to be positive about providing CRS services; however, their perceived barriers should be addressed prior to CRS service implementation
- …
