1,720,960 research outputs found
Relationship between trunk control and recovery of upper extremity function in stroke patients
No full textStroke affects the ability of the trunk muscles to maintain an upright posture and maintain the base of support during static and dynamic postural adjustments. The trunk is considered an important postural stabilizer which enables the dissociation of the upper extremity from the trunk for function. However, this common assumption in neurorehabilitation has not been validated in clinical trials. The association between trunk control and recovery of upper extremity function in stroke patients is not known currently.The cross-sectional studies (Phase 1A and Phase 1B studies) investigated the relationship between trunk control and upper extremity function in 45 subacute stroke and 25 chronic stroke participants, and 34 age- and sex-matched healthy controls.Trunk control and upper extremity function were assessed using the Trunk Impairment Scale (TIS) and Streamlined Wolf Motor Function Test (SWMFT) respectively. The participants performed SWMFT tasks, with and without an external trunk support in random order. Kinematic data were captured with the Vicon motion capture system in the Phase 1A study with chronic stroke participants and healthy controls. With trunk support, there was statistically significant improvement in trunk control (TIS) of subacute and chronic stroke participants; improvement in SWMFT performance time (SWMFT-Time) of the upper extremity of the stroke participants and the healthy controls; and improvement in SWMFT-Functional Ability Scale (SWMFT-FAS) in stroke participants. There was also statistically significant improvement in movement smoothness and elbow extension of the affected upper extremity of chronic stroke participants. The findings suggest that stabilization of the trunk enables an improved ability to use the upper extremity for functional activities. Significant strong associations were found between trunk control and upper extremity impairment (Fugl-Meyer score, FMA) and upper extremity function (SWMFT-Time and SWMFT-FAS).The longitudinal study (Phase 2 study) examined the recovery pattern of trunk control and upper extremity impairment and function in 45 subacute stroke participants in the first 6 months following stroke. The results further confirmed the findings of the cross-sectional studies (Phase 1A and Phase 1B studies) about the strong association between trunk control and upper extremity in the first 6 months post stroke. The rate of change of the recovery curves of trunk control and upper extremity impairment was found to be similar over time. As TIS scores improved over time, both the upper extremity impairment (FMA) and upper extremity function (SWMFT-Time and SWMFTFAS) improved almost in parallel with the TIS increase. The results imply that trunk control has an association with the recovery of the upper extremity.This PhD work has deepened our understanding about trunk control and upper extremity in people with stroke and provided valuable insights for rehabilitation professionals and researchers. The findings will assist therapists to design comprehensive programmes for rehabilitation of trunk control and upper extremity at different stages of stroke recovery; and aid in the prognostication of trunk and upper extremity recovery post stroke and therefore, will have an impact on clinical practice.<br/
Effect of trunk support on upper extremity function in people with chronic stroke and people who are healthy
No full textBackground: Trunk control is thought to contribute to upper extremity (UE) function. However, this common assumption has not been validated.Objective: To investigate the effect of providing an external trunk support on trunk control and UE function, and examine the relationship between trunk control and UE function in people with chronic stroke and healthy controls.Design: A cross-sectional study was conducted.Methods: Twenty-five participants with chronic stroke and 34 age and sex-matched healthy controls were recruited. Trunk control was assessed using the Trunk Impairment Scale (TIS), UE impairment and function were assessed with Fugl-Meyer (FMA-UE) and Streamlined Wolf Motor Function Test (SWMFT) respectively. The TIS and SWMFT were evaluated, with and without an external trunk support; the FMA was evaluated without trunk support.Results: With trunk support, participants with stroke demonstrated improvement in TIS from 18 to 20 points (p<0.001); reduction in SWMFT performance time (SWMFT-Time) of the affected UE from 37.20 to 35.37 seconds (p<0.05); and improvement in the affected UE function (SWMFT-Functional Ability Scale) from 3.3 to 3.4 points (p<0.01). With trunk support, SWMFT-Time of healthy controls was reduced from 1.61 to 1.48 seconds (p<0.001) for the dominant, and from 1.71 to 1.59 seconds (p<0.001) for the non-dominant UE. Significant moderate correlation was found between TIS and FMA-UE (r = 0.53) in participants with stroke.Limitations: The limitations include a non-blinded assessor and a standardized height of the external trunk support.Conclusions: External trunk support improved trunk control in people with chronic stroke; and had a statistically significant effect on UE function in both people with chronic stroke and healthy controls. The findings suggest an association between trunk control and UE when an external trunk support was provided. This supports the hypothesis that the provision of lower trunk and lumbar stabilization from an external support enables an improved ability to use the UE for functional activities.<br/
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
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
Author-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.
No full textAuthor-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.</p
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