1,721,048 research outputs found
Capacity for clinical research on herbal medicines in Africa.
No full textAn electronic survey was used to assess the training needs of clinical and public health researchers who have been involved, and/or plan to become involved, in clinical trials of herbal medicines in Africa. Over 90 researchers were contacted through pre-existing networks, of whom 58 (64%) responded, from 35 institutions in 14 African countries. Over half (57%) had already been involved in a clinical trial of an herbal medicine, and gave information about a total of 23 trials that have already been completed. Of these, only five had been published, and only one had resulted in a licensed product. Fifty-four (54) of the researchers were planning to conduct a clinical trial of an herbal medicine in the future, and gave information about 54 possible trials. Respondents outlined the following most commonly encountered difficulties when conducting clinical trials: resource constraints (including lack of funding, equipment, staff, and infrastructure); social acceptance of the clinical trial (including difficulty recruiting enough patients, poor rapport with traditional healers, and willingness of biomedical staff to be involved); herbal medicine supply (including insufficient cultivation, production, and quality control); lack of trained staff; and logistical issues in conducting trials. The topics in which researchers were least confident were Intellectual Property Rights issues, statistical issues, and issues related to Good Clinical Practice guidelines
HIV-free survival at 12 – 24 months in breastfed infants of HIV-infected women on ART: a systematic review
No full textObjective: To provide estimates of HIV-free survival at 12-24 months in breastfed children by maternal ART (6 months or lifelong) to inform WHO HIV and Infant Feeding guidelines.Methods: Eighteen studies published 2005-2015 were included in a systematic literature review (1295 papers identified, 156 abstracts screened, 55 full texts); papers were analysed by narrative synthesis and meta-analysis of HIV-free survival by maternal ART regimen in a random effects model. We also grouped studies by feeding modality. Study quality was assessed using a modified Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) and GRADE.Results: The pooled estimates for 12-month HIV-free survival were 89.8% (95% confidence interval, CI: 86.5%, 93.2%) for infants of mothers on ART for 6 months postnatally (six studies) and 91.4% (95% CI 87.5%, 95.4%) for infants of mothers on lifelong ART (three studies). 18-month HIV-free survival estimates were 89.0% (95% CI 83.9%, 94.2%) with 6 months ART (five studies) and 96.1% (95% CI 92.8%, 99.0%) with lifelong ART (three studies). 24-month HIV-free survival for infants whose mothers were on ART to 6 months postnatally (two studies) was 89.2% (95% CI 79.9%, 98.5%). Heterogeneity was considerable throughout. In four studies, HIV-free survival in breastfed infants ranged from 87% (95% CI 78%, 92%) to 96% (95% CI 91%, 98%) and in formula-fed infants from 67% (95% CI 35.5%, 87.9%) to 97.6% (95% CI 93.0%, 98.2%).Conclusion: Our results highlight the importance of breastfeeding for infant survival and of ART in reducing the risk of mother-to-child HIV transmission and support the WHO recommendation to initiate ART for life immediately after HIV diagnosis
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe 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
Get PDF“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
Get PDFWe 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
Postnatal HIV Transmission in breastfed infants of HIV-infected women on ART: a systematic review and meta-analysis
No full textIntroduction: to systematically review the literature on mother-to-child transmission in breastfed infants whose mothers received antiretroviral therapy and support the process of updating the WHO infant feeding guidelines in the context of HIV and ART. Methods: we reviewed experimental and observational studies; exposure was maternal HIV antiretroviral therapy (and duration) and infant feeding modality; outcomes were overall and postnatal HIV transmission rates in the infant at 6, 9, 12 and 18 months. English literature from 2005 to 2015 was systematically searched in multiple electronic databases. Papers were analysed by narrative synthesis; data were pooled in random effects meta-analyses. Postnatal transmission was assessed from 4-6 weeks of life. Study quality was assessed using a modified Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) and GRADE.Results and discussion: eleven studies were identified, from 1439 citations and review of 72 abstracts. Heterogeneity in study methodology and pooled estimates was considerable. Overall pooled transmission rates at 6 months for breastfed infants with mothers on ART was 3.54% (95 confidence interval, CI, 1.15-5.93%) and at 12 months 4.23% (95% CI 2.97-5.49%). Postnatal transmission rates were 1.08 (95% CI: 0.32-1.85) at six and 2.93 (95%CI: 0.68-5.18) at 12 months. ART was mostly provided for PMTCT only and did not continue beyond 6 months postpartum. No study provided data on mixed feeding and transmission risk. Conclusions: there is evidence of substantially reduced postnatal HIV transmission risk under the cover of maternal ART. However, transmission risk increased once PMTCT ART stopped at 6 months, which supports the current WHO recommendations of life-long ART for all <br/
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe 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
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