1,721,163 research outputs found
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
Placebo studies and ritual theory: a comparative analysis of Navajo, acupuncture and biomedical healing
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Using a comparative analysis of Navajo healing ceremonials, acupuncture and biomedical treatment, this essay examines placebo studies and ritual theory as mutually interpenetrating disciplines. Healing rituals create a receptive person susceptible to the influences of authoritative culturally sanctioned ‘powers’. The healer provides the sufferer with imaginative, emotional, sensory, moral and aesthetic input derived from the palpable symbols and procedures of the ritual process—in the process fusing the sufferer's idiosyncratic narrative unto a universal cultural mythos. Healing rituals involve a drama of
evocation, enactment, embodiment and evaluation
in a charged atmosphere of hope and uncertainty. Experimental research into placebo effects demonstrates that routine biomedical pharmacological and procedural interventions contain significant ritual dimensions. This research also suggests that ritual healing not only represents changes in affect, self-awareness and self-appraisal of behavioural capacities, but involves modulations of symptoms through neurobiological mechanisms. Recent scientific investigations into placebo acupuncture suggest several ways that observations from ritual studies can be verified experimentally. Placebo effects are often described as ‘non-specific’; the analysis presented here suggests that placebo effects are the ‘specific’ effects of healing rituals.
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Acupuncture: theory, efficacy, and practice
No full textTraditionally, acupuncture is embedded in naturalistic theories that are compatible with Confucianism and Taoism. Such ideas as yin–yang, qi, dampness, and wind represent East Asian conceptual frameworks that emphasize the reliability of ordinary, human sen-sory awareness. Many physicians who practice acupuncture reject such prescientific notions. Numerous randomized, controlled trials and more than 25 systematic reviews and meta-analyses have evaluated the clinical efficacy of acupuncture. Evidence from these trials indicates that acupuncture is effective for emesis developing after surgery or chemotherapy in adults and for nausea associated with pregnancy. Good evidence exists that acupuncture is also effective for relieving dental pain. For such conditions as chronic pain, back pain, and headache, the data are equivocal or contra-dictory. Clinical research on acupuncture poses unique method-ologic challenges. Properly performed acupuncture seems to be a safe procedure. Basic-science research provides evidence that be-gins to offer plausible mechanisms for the presumed physiologic effects of acupuncture. Multiple research approaches have shown that acupuncture activates endogenous opioid mechanisms. Re-cent data, obtained by using functional magnetic resonance imaging, suggest that acupuncture has regionally specific, quan-tifiable effects on relevant brain structures. Acupuncture may stim-ulate gene expression of neuropeptides. The training and provi-sion of acupuncture care in the United States are rapidly expanding. Ann Intern Med. 2002;136:374-383. www.annals.or
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