1,720,973 research outputs found
Relationship between customary physical activity, muscle strength and physical performance in older men and women: findings from the Hertfordshire Cohort Study
No full textSir—Maintenance of muscle strength and physical performance in later life is an important component of healthy ageing [1–4]. Reported influences include age, gender, size and physical activity [5–7]. Older age has been linked to lower strength [8, 9], but these studies have not considered how age-related decline in activity levels may contribute to these changes. A study of grip strength in older people found that it declined by 20% per decade but only 11% of this decline could be attributed to age alone [10].Older people are encouraged to maintain levels of physical activity, but most evidence considers the benefits of exercise and strength training intervention programmes [11–13]. It is important to quantify activity levels corresponding to levels of benefit in general, as well as defining specific outcomes related to particular activities in both men and women. Epidemiological studies suggest that increased customary physical activity is associated with improved muscle strength and physical performance, but it is unclear whether men and women derive similar benefit [14–17]. For example Bassey et al. found a positive association between usual physical activity and muscle strength in both men and women [18], whereas Rantanen's study of everyday physical activity in older people showed the importance of activities such as housework, walking and gardening in maintaining independence for women [19].The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between customary physical activity, muscle strength and physical performance in older men and women
Birthweight, vitamin D receptor gene polymorphism, and risk of lumbar spine osteoarthritis
No full textOBJECTIVE: To investigate risk factors for adult lumbar spine osteoarthritis (OA) including polymorphisms of the vitamin D receptor gene (VDR) and birthweight. METHODS: Plain radiographs of the lumbar spine were taken in 392 healthy subjects and graded for osteophytes and disc space narrowing (DSN); demographic data were collected. Details of birthweight and weight at 1 year were retrieved from historical records. VDR gene allelic variation was analyzed in 291 subjects. RESULTS: The mean age of the cohort was 65.8 years; mean weight was 68.9 kg in women and 80.1 kg and men. Osteophytes of grade >/= 2 were found in 63.5% of this cohort; DSN >/= 2 was present in 14.3% of subjects. Increasing osteophyte severity was significantly associated with age, adult weight, and manual social class; DSN was not. Presence and severity of osteophytes were associated with low birthweight and lower weight at 1 year in men, but not in women. No associations were found for DSN. The B allele of the VDR gene was associated with increasing severity of osteophyte. There was a significant interaction between birthweight and VDR gene in determining risk of osteophytosis in men (p for interaction = 0.04). The VDR-birthweight interaction pattern was similar but not statistically significant in women. CONCLUSION: Lumbar spine OA was a prevalent finding in this cohort. Both birthweight and polymorphisms in the VDR gene were associated with the presence of lumbar spine osteophytes and a significant interaction was observed between these 2 factors in men
The impact of endogenous cortisone on bone: demonstration of in vivo 11beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1 activity
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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
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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