1,721,195 research outputs found
Assessment of left ventricular function by ECG-gated myocardial perfusion scintigraphy with image inversion technique: comparison with equilibrium radionuclide angiography
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Breeding for aesthetics: a growing challenge for canine welfare
No full textCanine breeding aimed at satisfying extreme aesthetic needs and expectations of owners is an increasingly evident trend that has severe consequences on the welfare of dogs.
A classic example is the well-known brachycephalic syndrome that characterizes some breeds, such as the French Bulldog. The shortness of the muzzle, the roundness of the skull and the eyes (neotenic characteristics) communicate a sense of cuteness and the need for protection and care. Tiny dogs with bulging eyes, like Chihuahuas, elicit similar feelings. Unfortunately, these hyper-types often have severe physical and behavioral problems. However, in a paradox difficult to explain, owners of these animals show loyalty to the breed, which they tend to repurchase in the event of their dog's death. Such a choice would depend on owners’ preference for the breed personality rather than its aesthetics. In this context, the veterinarian's role should be decisive in making those who intend to buy these dogs at least aware of the consequences of their choice. To this end, breed-related issues should be given vital importance during studies in Veterinary Medicine.
Another more recent trend are the so-called designer dogs, hybrids obtained from the mating of individuals of different breeds and marketed as new breeds, often at higher prices than the parent breeds. These dogs are sought after for aesthetic and fashion reasons and because it is believed (but without solid scientific evidence) that some of them are hypoallergenic (for example, the Labradoodle, which derives from the cross between a Labrador and a Poodle). However, despite the phenomenon called hybrid vigour, increased disease resistance has not been demonstrated in designer dogs, probably due to the absence of selection in the parental lines, as parents are only used to obtain the desired phenotype of hybrids. Conversely, designer dogs appear to have higher risks for some pathologies than their parent breeds. However, the literature on designer dogs is still very scarce, and more studies are needed to come to firmer conclusions.
From a regulatory point of view, according to Legislative Decree 30 December 1992 n. 529, the sale of hybrids cannot be equated to that of purebred individuals. Therefore, the diffusion of designer dogs could become a shortcut for marketing and spreading animals without any ethical, legal or medical guarantee. It will, thus, once again, be the task of veterinarians to provide adequate support to future owners
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
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