1,720,960 research outputs found
Technologies in upper limb rehabilitation post-stroke: the users' perspective
No full textBackground Technologies may address some current and future challenges in upper limb stroke rehabilitation by providing cost-effective and motivating opportunities for intensive practice, suitable for home-use and without the supervision of a therapist. The potential for technologies has therefore excited development and clinical testing. The aim of this study was to explore the perceptions of patients, their informal carers and healthcare professionals (HCPs) regarding barriers and opportunities of using these technologies in the future. Method Within four weeks of an interactive exhibition of 27 different upper limb technologies appropriate for use with stroke patients, four focus groups with people who: had not used technologies (n= 4 patients and 3 carers); had used technologies (n= 4 patients and 2 carers); carers (n=5) and HCPs (n=7) were conducted. Each group discussed the barriers to and opportunities for upper limb technology use. Transcriptions of each group were analysed using thematic analysis. Overall findings came from comparing and contrasting themes across the groups Results The potential for technologies to support self-management was a key theme. Barriers to achieving including lack of: information and ‘joined up’ approach between device providers, HCPs and service users; knowledge/confidence of HCPs; patient and carer’s exposure during rehabilitation and poor service delivery models. Device design was considered key to effective use, especially in home settings. Conclusions Although participants were interested in technology (attended the exhibition), and identified benefits of technologies (informing which technologies should be evaluated in a clinical trial), their overall response was that systemic barriers prevented the development of technology use in service provision. The findings form the basis of two wider questionnaires for HCPs and patients & carers and will inform the development of new technologies, ensuring that they are designed to satisfy both users and clinical needs
From circuit design to service delivery - establishing a clinical FES service
No full textThere are a number of components that are essential to the operation of a clinical FES service. Firstly we believe that FES is part of a treatment package and cannot be delivered by the simple provision of a stand alone device enabling the patient to treat their own stroke, MS etc. Therefore trained staff are required to deliver that service and in our experience this works best if this is a team of therapists and clinical engineers working closely together. Secondly the equipment has to be designed and manufactured to withstand the rigours of everyday life and reliability is essential. Constant patient support and education are also required and the problems that inevitably arise must be solved promptly. Patient selection is crucial. Finally data must be recorded and stored in a structured way (in Salisbury we have 1104 patients on the database and see 30 patients per week) to quantify the efficacy of treatment and to determine the design criteria for the next generation of devices.<br/
Biomechanical approaches applied to the lower and upper limb for the measurement of spasticity: a systematic review of the literature
No full textPurpose: To review and characterise biomechanical approaches for the measurement of spasticity as one component of the upper motor neurone syndrome.Method: Systematic literature searches based on defined constructs and a four-step review process of approaches used or described to measure spasticity, its association with function or associated phenomena. Most approaches were limited to individual joints and therefore, to reflect this trend, references were grouped according to which body joint(s) were investigated or whether it addressed a functional activity. For each joint, references were further sub-divided into the types of measurement method described.Results: A database of 335 references was established for the review process. The knee, ankle and elbow joints were the most popular, perhaps reflecting the assumption that they are mono-planar in movement and therefore simpler to assess. Seven measurement methods were identified: five involving passive movement (manual, controlled displacement, controlled torque, gravitational and tendon tap) and two involving active movement (voluntary and functional). Generally, the equipment described was in an experimental stage and there was a lack of information on system properties, such as accuracy or reliability. Patient testing was either by cohort or case studies. The review also conveyed the myriad of interpretations of the concept of spasticity.Conclusions: Though biomechanical approaches provide quantitative data, the review highlighted several limitations that have prevented them being established as an appropriate method for clinical application to measure spasticity
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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