Stellar populations of early-type galaxies in different environments I. Line-strength indices

Aims: This paper commences a series devoted to the study of the stellar content of early-type galaxies. The goal of the series is to set constraints on the evolutionary status of these objects. Methods: In this paper we describe the details of the galaxy sample, the observations, and the data reduction. Line-strength indices and velocity dispersions sigma are measured in 98 early-type galaxies drawn from different environments, and the relation of the indices with the velocity dispersion analysed in detail. Results: The present sample indicates that some of the index-sigma relations depend on galaxy environment. In particular, the slope of the relation between Balmer lines and sigma is steeper for galaxies in the Virgo cluster, small groups, and in the field than for galaxies in the Coma cluster. In several indices there is also a significant offset in the zero point between the relations defined by the different subsamples. The slopes of the index-sigma relation for the Virgo and low-density environment galaxies are explained by a variation of both age and metallicity with velocity dispersion, as previously noted in other studies. For the galaxies in the Coma cluster, however, the relation of the indices with sigma only requires a variation of the abundance along the sigma sequence. In agreement with other studies we find that the models that better reproduce the slopes are those in which the alpha elements vary more than the Fe-peak elements along the sigma sequence, while, at a given sigma, older galaxies show an higher alpha/Fe ratio. Conclusions: The results can be explained assuming that galaxies in the Coma cluster have experienced a truncated star formation and chemical enrichment history compared to a more continuous time-extended history for their counterparts in lower density environments.Comment: accepted for publication in A&

Will This Paper Increase Your h-index? Scientific Impact Prediction

Scientific impact plays a central role in the evaluation of the output of scholars, departments, and institutions. A widely used measure of scientific impact is citations, with a growing body of literature focused on predicting the number of citations obtained by any given publication. The effectiveness of such predictions, however, is fundamentally limited by the power-law distribution of citations, whereby publications with few citations are extremely common and publications with many citations are relatively rare. Given this limitation, in this work we instead address a related question asked by many academic researchers in the course of writing a paper, namely: "Will this paper increase my h-index?" Using a real academic dataset with over 1.7 million authors, 2 million papers, and 8 million citation relationships from the premier online academic service ArnetMiner, we formalize a novel scientific impact prediction problem to examine several factors that can drive a paper to increase the primary author's h-index. We find that the researcher's authority on the publication topic and the venue in which the paper is published are crucial factors to the increase of the primary author's h-index, while the topic popularity and the co-authors' h-indices are of surprisingly little relevance. By leveraging relevant factors, we find a greater than 87.5% potential predictability for whether a paper will contribute to an author's h-index within five years. As a further experiment, we generate a self-prediction for this paper, estimating that there is a 76% probability that it will contribute to the h-index of the co-author with the highest current h-index in five years. We conclude that our findings on the quantification of scientific impact can help researchers to expand their influence and more effectively leverage their position of "standing on the shoulders of giants."Comment: Proc. of the 8th ACM International Conference on Web Search and Data Mining (WSDM'15

Measuring co-authorship and networking-adjusted scientific impact

Appraisal of the scientific impact of researchers, teams and institutions with productivity and citation metrics has major repercussions. Funding and promotion of individuals and survival of teams and institutions depend on publications and citations. In this competitive environment, the number of authors per paper is increasing and apparently some co-authors don't satisfy authorship criteria. Listing of individual contributions is still sporadic and also open to manipulation. Metrics are needed to measure the networking intensity for a single scientist or group of scientists accounting for patterns of co-authorship. Here, I define I1 for a single scientist as the number of authors who appear in at least I1 papers of the specific scientist. For a group of scientists or institution, In is defined as the number of authors who appear in at least In papers that bear the affiliation of the group or institution. I1 depends on the number of papers authored Np. The power exponent R of the relationship between I1 and Np categorizes scientists as solitary (R>2.5), nuclear (R=2.25-2.5), networked (R=2-2.25), extensively networked (R=1.75-2) or collaborators (R<1.75). R may be used to adjust for co-authorship networking the citation impact of a scientist. In similarly provides a simple measure of the effective networking size to adjust the citation impact of groups or institutions. Empirical data are provided for single scientists and institutions for the proposed metrics. Cautious adoption of adjustments for co-authorship and networking in scientific appraisals may offer incentives for more accountable co-authorship behaviour in published articles.Comment: 25 pages, 5 figure

Maternal haemodynamic function differs in pre‐eclampsia when it is associated with a small‐for‐gestational‐age newborn: a prospective cohort study

Objective To describe maternal haemodynamic differences in gestational hypertension with small‐for‐gestational‐age babies (HDP + SGA), gestational hypertension with appropriate‐for‐gestational‐age babies (HDP‐only) and control pregnancies. Design Prospective cohort study. Setting Tertiary Hospital, UK. Population Women with gestational hypertension and healthy pregnant women. Methods Maternal haemodynamic indices were measured using a non‐invasive Ultrasound Cardiac Output Monitor (USCOM‐1A®) and corrected for gestational age and maternal characteristics using device‐specific reference ranges. Main outcome measures Maternal cardiac output, stroke volume, systemic vascular resistance. Results We included 114 HDP + SGA, 202 HDP‐only and 401 control pregnancies at 26–41 weeks of gestation. There was no significant difference in the mean arterial blood pressure (110 versus 107 mmHg, P = 0.445) between the two HDP groups at presentation. Pregnancies complicated by HDP + SGA had significantly lower median heart rate (76 versus 85 bpm versus 83 bpm), lower cardiac output (0.85 versus 0.98 versus 0.97 MoM) and higher systemic vascular resistance (1.4 versus 1.0 versus 1.2 MoM) compared with control and HDP‐only pregnancies, respectively (all P < 0.05). Conclusion Women with HDP + SGA present with more severe haemodynamic dysfunction than HDP‐only. Even HDP‐only pregnancies exhibit impaired haemodynamic indices compared with normal pregnancies, supporting a role of the maternal cardiovascular system in gestational hypertension irrespective of fetal size. Central haemodynamic changes may play a role in the pathogenesis of pre‐eclampsia and should be considered alongside placental aetiology

Improvement of Possibilities of Treating Pneumonias in Patients on the Background of Acute Myeloblast Leucosis in the Aspect of Immunoresistance Mechanisms

Aim: to analyze the influence of the immunomodeling preparation glutamyl-cysteinyl-glycine disodium (glutoxim) on indices of cellular and humoral immunity in patients with pneumonias on the background of acute myeloblast leucosis to form new approaches to the improvement of treating pneumonias in patients with immunity disorders.Materials and methods. The research group - 37 patients with pneumonia on the background of acute myeloblast leucosis, who underwent the program treatment on the base of the hematological center “MI city multi-profile clinical hospital №4” Dnipro city, 2014-2015. The age of patients from 23 to 45 years old; 10 women and 27 men. The diagnosis of leucosis and pneumonia forms was verified corresponding to modern conventional clinical and morphological criteria. Patients from the main research group (n = 18) were prescribed with glutamyl-cysteinyl-glycine disodium by the scheme 2 ml of 3 % (60 mg) i/v № 10 in mornings, summary dose - 300 mg. Indications of immunograms were studied: Т-lymphocytes, В-lymphocytes and their subpopulation composition (CD3 +, CD4 +, CD8 +, CD19 +, CD19-, CD16 +, CD56+) using the flowing laser cytofluorimetry. Immunoglobulin levels were determined by the method of immunoturbometry. Indications of immunograms were assessed in the treatment dynamics. The statistical processing – using packages of applied programs «Excel» and «Statistic 10».Results. According to the analysis of indices of the cellular and humoral immunity of patients with pneumonia on the background of acute myeloblast leucosis, the process of glutamyl-cysteinyl-glycine disodium use proved the statistically reliable activation of phagocytosis and anti-infectious defense indices. The dynamics of humoral immunity indices also proved the positive influence on the state of the immune reactivity of the organism with the reliable increase of ІgА and Іg М, responsible for neutralization of infectious agents and bacterial toxins.Conclusions: The use of the ummunomodeling preparation glutamyl-cysteinyl-glycine disodium (glutoxim) in patients with pneumonia on the background of acute myeloblast leucosis results in the improvement of indices of cellular and humoral immunity and phagocytosis activation. The research results prove the possibility of optimization of approaches to treating pneumonias in patients with severe immunity disorders by using immunomedeling therapy by glutamyl-cysteinyl-glycine disodium (glutoxim)

Robotic and clinical evaluation of upper limb motor performance in patients with Friedreich's Ataxia: an observational study

Background: Friedreich’s ataxia (FRDA) is the most common hereditary autosomal recessive form of ataxia. In this disease there is early manifestation of gait ataxia, and dysmetria of the arms and legs which causes impairment in daily activities that require fine manual dexterity. To date there is no cure for this disease. Some novel therapeutic approaches are ongoing in different steps of clinical trial. Development of sensitive outcome measures is crucial to prove therapeutic effectiveness. The aim of the study was to assess the reliability and sensitivity of quantitative and objective assessment of upper limb performance computed by means of the robotic device and to evaluate the correlation with clinical and functional markers of the disease severity. Methods: Here we assess upper limb performances by means of the InMotion Arm Robot, a robot designed for clinical neurological applications, in a cohort of 14 children and young adults affected by FRDA, matched for age and gender with 18 healthy subjects. We focused on the analysis of kinematics, accuracy, smoothness, and submovements of the upper limb while reaching movements were performed. The robotic evaluation of upper limb performance consisted of planar reaching movements performed with the robotic system. The motors of the robot were turned off, so that the device worked as a measurement tool. The status of the disease was scored using the Scale for the Assessment and Rating of Ataxia (SARA). Relationships between robotic indices and a range of clinical and disease characteristics were examined. Results: All our robotic indices were significantly different between the two cohorts except for two, and were highly and reliably discriminative between healthy and subjects with FRDA. In particular, subjects with FRDA exhibited slower movements as well as loss of accuracy and smoothness, which are typical of the disease. Duration of Movement, Normalized Jerk, and Number of Submovements were the best discriminative indices, as they were directly and easily measurable and correlated with the status of the disease, as measured by SARA. Conclusions: Our results suggest that outcome measures obtained by means of robotic devices can improve the sensitivity of clinical evaluations of patients’ dexterity and can accurately and efficiently quantify changes over time in clinical trials, particularly when functional scales appear to be no longer sensitive

A review of the characteristics of 108 author-level bibliometric indicators

An increasing demand for bibliometric assessment of individuals has led to a growth of new bibliometric indicators as well as new variants or combinations of established ones. The aim of this review is to contribute with objective facts about the usefulness of bibliometric indicators of the effects of publication activity at the individual level. This paper reviews 108 indicators that can potentially be used to measure performance on the individual author level, and examines the complexity of their calculations in relation to what they are supposed to reflect and ease of end-user application.Comment: to be published in Scientometrics, 201