1,720,960 research outputs found
Insight Into Complexity: Novel Information Theoretic Analysis of Spatiotemporal Interactions
Complex systems are comprised of different components. Interactions and associations among these components define the functionality of the system. For example, T cells must directly interact with virally infected cells to kill them. This research characterizes the most relevant components of complex systems by analyzing interacting relationships using information theoretic measures. It emphasizes the importance of spatial and temporal dynamics, which occur when components share spatial proximities or temporal sequences. Novel information theoretic analyses are proposed for quantifying the degree of association among system components, which is key to defining the spatiotemporal dynamics. One focus of this work is the application of these measures to biomedical datasets, bridging the gap between computational science and life sciences. Another focus is on the visual representation of such interactions, providing a new scientific lens to understand relevant features of complex systems. The measures are validated against benchmarks to ensure efficacy and applicability across multidisciplinary fields. This work advances the fields of computational biology and scientific visualization by providing novel, robust tools to analyze and interpret complex spatiotemporal interactions
Evaluation of feasibility and potential impact of a clinical innovative software tool to support pharmacists to prescribe for minor ailments
Background:
The role of community pharmacists has shifted from dispensing prescribed medications to providing patient-focused clinical services such as Pharmacists Prescribing for Minor Ailments (PPMA). These services are expected to improve patient care. Pharmacists across provinces have been given some level of prescriptive authority since 2005. The PPMA service was first introduced in Alberta. Currently, nine out ten Canadian provinces have the authority for PPMA service. Ontario recently adopted PPMA, in January 2023. However, there are several barriers such as workload, time constraints and integration to workflow that can hinder pharmacists’ ability to implement PPMA into existing practice. Technological solutions such as computerized decision support system (CDSS) can help pharmacists and facilitate performing PPMA service. PharmAssess Diagnostics developed a CDSS that provides a digital software platform for pharmacists to provide clinical services such as minor ailment prescribing. Although previous research examined the acceptability and impact of CDSS in other professions, there is paucity of research about the feasibility and impact of implementing supporting software tools into the workflow of community pharmacies on adapting PPMA.
Objective:
The aim of this project is to evaluate the feasibility and potential impact of a clinical innovative software tool to support pharmacists for minor ailment prescribing.
Method:
This project followed a mixed method design. It included an anonymous online survey and semi-structured interview with community pharmacists/pharmacy student interns to explore their perspectives on the usability, acceptability, potential impact on integration in workflow and overall effect on workload while using the PharmAssess Diagnostics software for PPMA. In Ontario, pharmacists were recruited via the list of pharmacists in the Ontario College of Pharmacist (OCP) who agreed to be contacted for research purposes. Additionally, the co-op supervisors list from the School of Pharmacy University of Waterloo, and clients of the software company were contacted to be recruited. Demographic (age, gender) and professional characteristics (academic qualification, type of community pharmacy, current position in the pharmacy) were collected from participating pharmacists. Then, pharmacists’ perspectives were examined using a survey with Likert’s scale questions and were summarized. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the distribution of the responses.
Semi-structured interviews were conducted with pharmacists/student interns who were further interested in providing their detailed perspectives with the use of this software tool in community pharmacy settings. The interviews were analyzed thematically. Then both forms of data were merged using the side-by-side approach to draw conclusion.
Results: A total of 11 survey responses were collected. Pharmacists agreed that the software tool was usable (72%), acceptable (81%), had positive impact on workload (63%) and had positive impact on workflow (45%). Overall, 90% of participants stated that the average time per consultation using the software tool ranged between 5 to 15 minutes. Seven pharmacists were interviewed virtually. Three major themes emerged from the interviews, revealing usability of the software tool, facilitators, and barriers to the implementation of the software tool and impact of the software tool implementation into community pharmacy
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
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
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
We 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
Author-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.
Author-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.</p
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