1,720,969 research outputs found
Seismic behaviour and design of innovative hybrid coupled shear walls
In this work innovative hybrid coupled shear walls (HCSW) are considered, their design is discussed, their efficiency and limitations evaluated by means of nonlinear static (pushover) analysis. Different numbers of storeys, wall geometries and design assumptions are studied in order to give an overview of situations of interest in European seismic prone areas. This study is part of a larger research project named INNO-HYCO (INNOvative HYbrid and COmposite steel-concrete structural solutions for building in seismic area) funded by the European Commission
ENT Function in a 14-Days Guinness Scuba Dive.
Scuba diving is known to affect the rhino-pharyngo-tubaric district (RPT unit). The aim of the study was to document function modifications of the RPT unit in 6 Italian divers (3 men and 3 women) who lived for 14 days consecutively at a depth of 8-10 m, breathing air (21% oxygen) at a pressure ranging between 1.8 and 2 ATA. RPT and inner ear assessment were carried out before the dive (TIME 0) and 24 h (TIME 1) after resurfacing, in order to investigate diving-related RPT and inner ear alterations. Physical examination after resurfacing revealed: fungal external otitis, otoscopic findings consistent with middle ear barotraumas and rhinosinusitis. Rhino-manometry showed a remarkable increase in inspiratory nasal flow and a substantial decrease in nasal resistance. No epithelial cell disruption was retrieved comparing pre and post resurfacing samples. Post-diving tubaric dysfunction was found. Pure tone audiometry revealed a bilateral 40 dB HL hearing loss at 4 kHz in 1 diver. Relevant PTA functions did not seem to be affected by the experiment, no remarkable changes were found at the Sensory Organisation Test and at the Motor Control Test. The 14-day underwater period had a positive effect on nasal flows and resistances
Predictive role of audiological and clinical features for functional results after stapedotomy
OBJECTIVE:
To analyze and compare the preoperative factors that potentially influence the outcome of stapedotomy in our study group.
MATERIALS AND METHODS:
161 cases were enrolled. Clinical variables considered to influence functional results - air conduction (AC) and bone conduction (BC) pure-tone average (PTA), air-bone gaps (ABG), sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL), ABG gain and DeltaSNHL - were gender, age, case type (unilateral vs. bilateral), ear side (right vs. left), pregnancy, vascular disease and family history of otosclerosis. The audiometric variables were preoperative AC- and BC-PTA, SNHL and ABG.
RESULTS:
Univariate logistic regression analysis showed that the probability of obtaining a > or =10 dB gain is significantly affected by the following factors: age or =50 dB and preoperative ABG > or =30 dB. All the other factors included into the registration (gender, familiarity, side, bilateral vs. unilateral, pregnancy, vascular diseases and preoperative BC-PTA) were not found to significantly affect postoperative gain (p > 0.05). Nevertheless, multivariate logistic regression analysis maintained a statistically significant correlation only between gain > or =10 dB and both preoperative ABG > or =30 dB and age <50 years.
CONCLUSIONS:
The accurate knowledge of predictive factors is a valuable tool that permits the surgeon to plan surgery with a better case selection as well as assisting in counseling the patient with regard to the likelihood of success of the procedure
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
Predicting Parameters for Audiological Complications in Pediatric Patients Affected by Meningitis
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
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
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