1,721,032 research outputs found
Evaluating the acceptability of digital interventions for improving quality of life in adults with asthma
No full textBackground: Using digital behaviour change interventions to aid self-management of longterm conditions such as asthma is increasingly recognised as effective and cost-effective. To address critical issues such as low uptake and ongoing engagement, both qualitive and quantitative approaches can be used. We will consider such approaches used during the development and evaluation of ‘My Breathing Matters’, a digital asthma self-management intervention, and ‘Headspace’, a popular mindfulness-meditation app. Methods: In the iterative, person-based development of ‘My Breathing Matters’ 30 adults with asthma were interviewed until the intervention was optimally acceptable and engaging. The intervention was then evaluated in a randomised feasibility trial of 88 adults with asthma with questionnaires at baseline, 3 and 12-months, and a further 18 qualitative interviews were conducted and thematically analysed. ‘Headspace’ was evaluated in 158 adults with asthma with questionnaires at baseline and 3-month follow-up alongside 30 patient interviews. Both interventions gathered detailed usage data which was triangulated with qualitative and quantitative questionnaire data to understand engagement and acceptability. Findings: Thematic analysis found both interventions to be acceptable and engaging, and usage data demonstrated both were frequently used (Median usage ‘My Breathing Matters’: 4 [IQR 8], Headspace: 8.5, [IQR 32]). People who repeatedly accessed the interventions often returned for specific, favoured intervention components (eg Breathing Retraining). Discussion: Complementary insights from quantitative, qualitative and usage data should be triangulated to understand whether an intervention is acceptable and engaging for targeted populations. Interventions can be further optimised by understanding the individual differences required to facilitate ‘effective engagement
Mindfulness improves psychological health and supports health behaviour cognitions: evidence from a pragmatic RCT of a digital mindfulness-based intervention
No full textBackground: Mindfulness-based interventions can improve psychological health; yet the mechanisms of change are underexplored. This pre-registered remote RCT evaluated a freely accessible digital mindfulness programme aiming to improve well-being, mental health and sleep quality. Health behaviour cognitions were explored as possible mediators. Methods: Participants from 91 countries (N = 1247, M
age = 27.03 [9.04]) were randomized to 30 days of mindfulness practice or attention-matched control condition. Measures of well-being, depression, anxiety, stress, sleep quality, barriers self-efficacy, self-regulation and behavioural predictors (e.g., attitudes and behavioural intentions) were taken at baseline, 1-month (post-intervention) and 2-months (follow-up). Linear regression examined intervention effects between and within groups. Longitudinal mediation analyses explored indirect effects through health behaviour cognitions. Results: Three hundred participants completed post-intervention measures. Those receiving mindfulness training reported significantly better well-being (M
difference = 2.34, 95%CIs.45–4.24, p =.016), lower depression (M
difference = −1.47, 95%CIs −2.38 to −.56, p =.002) and anxiety symptoms (M
difference = −.77, 95%CIs −1.51 to −.02, p =.045) than controls. Improvements in well-being and depression were maintained at follow-up. Intervention effects on primary outcomes were mediated by attitudes towards health maintenance and behavioural intentions. Mediating effects of attitudes remained when controlling for prior scores in models of depression and well-being. Conclusions: Digital, self-administered mindfulness practice for 30 days meaningfully improved psychological health, at least partially due to improved attitudes towards health behaviours and stronger behavioural intentions. This trial found that digital mindfulness is a promising and scalable well-being tool for the general population, and highlighted its role in supporting health behaviours.</p
Exercising body but not mind: A qualitative exploration of attitudes to combining physical activity and mindfulness practice for mental health promotion
No full text
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
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