Number Of Relevant Publications Research Articles

A dynamic study of the postoperative management of thyroid cancer from 2003 to 2022: a bibliometric analysis.

Over the past 20 years, the global incidence of thyroid cancer has continued to increase. The volume of literature on the postoperative management of thyroid cancer comprises 1,040 articles, from 64 countries, with 1,400 journals publishing the relevant literature, and several guidelines on the treatment of thyroid cancer. This study used bibliometric methods to identify research hotspots and explore future directions in this field. We comprehensively searched the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-E) database of the Web of Science Core Collection (WOSCC) for articles published from 2003 to 2022 on the postoperative management of thyroid cancer. Using CiteSpace 6.1.R6 and Microsoft Office Excel 2010, we evaluated and visualized the search results. Using R Studio, we generated a network of spatial geographic distribution maps and cooperative network. A total of 1,040 publications were included in the study. The results revealed an overall upward trend in the number of publications and citations over the past 20 years. The United States of America (USA) had the largest number of publications and the highest centrality (n=282, centrality =0.28). Johns Hopkins University had highest centrality (centrality =0.15) and was the academic center of the field. Thyroid was the journal with the highest number of citations (n=826), and the American Journal of Surgical Pathology was the journal with the highest centrality (centrality =0.08). The top 10 citations in the literature were mainly guidelines and consensus statements on the management of thyroid cancer. A keyword-based clustering analysis revealed the prominence of clusters of keywords, such as follow-up, recurrent laryngeal nerve, and medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC). A keyword burst detection analysis showed that the term papillary had the highest burst intensity (strength =8.02), while management guidelines, association guidelines, active surveillance (AS), microcarcinoma, and differentiated thyroid cancer were the current burst words. Over the past two decades, the number of relevant publications in the postoperative management of thyroid cancer field has continued to grow. Among the many research directions, follow-up, recurrent laryngeal nerve, and MTC are research hotspots. Future research is likely to revolve around guidelines and consensus statements on the management of thyroid cancer, AS, and microcarcinoma in differentiated thyroid cancer.

Mapping Homophobia and Transphobia on Social Media

IntroductionOne of the consequences of the increase in the number of social network users has been the inappropriate use of social networks by some of these users. Hate speeches are frequently identified on social media, and these promote certain homophobic and transphobic attitudes, causing psychological consequences on users belonging to minority gender groups. With this work, it is intended to know the current state of the problem raised, to facilitate the activity of new researchers in an emerging field.MethodologyBibliographic analysis of 203 papers from the Scopus databases for the period between 1997 and 2022 using the VOSViewer software. The search for publications was carried out in February 2023.ResultsThere is a positive trend in the number of relevant publications since 2017, mainly in 2021 and 2022. The research on homophobia and transphobia on social media in USA is prominent, with a high number of published articles, productive organizations, and influential authors. Twitter is shown to be the social network most widely used to spread homotransphobic hate speech. Environments conducive to the development of homotransphobic attitudes are identified as collective sports, mainly football and its supporters, as well as peer groups.ConclusionsIt is a growing problem that requires intervention at the societal level, requiring the development of legislation that moves away from heteronormativity, the development of mechanisms for automatic detection of homotransphobic discourse on social networks, and a multidisciplinary analysis and approach to control the problem as well as provide adequate social support to affected groups.

Bibliometric and visual analysis of microglia-related neuropathic pain from 2000 to 2021.

Microglia has gradually gained researchers' attention in the past few decades and has shown its promising prospect in treating neuropathic pain. Our study was performed to comprehensively evaluate microglia-related neuropathic pain via a bibliometric approach. We retrospectively reviewed publications focusing on microglia-related neuropathic pain from 2000 to 2021 in WoSCC. VOS viewer software and CiteSpace software were used for statistical analyses. A total of 2,609 articles were finally included. A steady increase in the number of relevant publications was observed in the past two decades. China is the most productive country, while the United States shares the most-cited and highest H-index country. The University of London, Kyushu University, and the University of California are the top 3 institutions with the highest number of publications. Molecular pain and Pain are the most productive and co-cited journals, respectively. Inoue K (Kyushu University) is the most-contributed researcher and Ji RR (Duke University) ranks 1st in both average citations per article and H-index. Keywords analyses revealed that pro-inflammatory cytokines shared the highest burst strength. Sex differences, neuroinflammation, and oxidative stress are the emerging keywords in recent years. In the field of microglia-related neuropathic pain, China is the largest producer and the United States is the most influential country. The signaling communication between microglia and neurons has continued to be vital in this field. Sexual dimorphism, neuroinflammation, and stem-cell therapies might be emerging trends that should be closely monitored.

Professional development for STEM educators: A bibliometric analysis of the recent progress

AbstractSTEM teacher professional development (STEM‐TPD) has become a hot topic of educational research. To evaluate the main characteristics, status and trends of this educational field and to provide new insights for future studies, this review applies a bibliometric analysis of relevant publications. The Web of Science (WoS) core collection database was used as the source of bibliographic data for the period 2011–2021; specifically, 776 articles published in 232 journals were selected for this review. The bibliometric analysis was then carried out using Bibliometrix and VOSviewer to explore trends and patterns in the STEM‐TDP literature. It is essential to note that the analysis does not account for the quality of the selected studies. However, it presents the results using various perspectives such as citation, co‐citation, spatial and lexical networks based on frequencies, network analysis and descriptive patterns. The findings show that the number of relevant publications has grown significantly in recent years, in particular from 2015 to 2021. The findings, based on citation metrics, highlight the most influential authors, institutions and journals in the area. Authors from different countries have contributed to this research area, but there is a low volume of international collaboration among them. The analysis also reveals the dynamic changes in trends, keywords and themes in this research area. The review concludes with some recommendations for future research, and the suggested implications may also benefit other stakeholders in STEM education. Context and ImplicationsRationale for the studySTEM education has garnered researchers' interest over the past two decades, but there are few reviews of STEM teacher professional development (STEM‐TPD) publications. Therefore, this bibliometric review sought to investigate the expansion of STEM‐TPD research. It also serves as a roadmap for future TPD research in STEM education.Why do the new findings matter?This comprehensive bibliometric study analysed 776 research publications on STEM‐TPD that were published in journals that were indexed by WoS. The findings shed light on recent developments, patterns and trends in STEM‐TPD research, as well as international collaboration in STEM‐TPD research.Implications for researchers, practitioners and policy makersThe overall findings may benefit the researchers, editorial board, and publishers to focus more on some emerging research themes, which can guide the focus of future research. STEM researchers should consider conducting more ambitious, high‐quality empirical research that is likely to yield robust results. They can investigate higher‐order thinking skills and other issues related to equity, gender inequality, and teacher attrition. The results also inspire researchers and research institutions to boost international collaboration. Similarly, policy makers and higher education institutions should implement more reforms to educational policies and teacher preparation programmes to improve and sustain STEM education.

Topics and problems of modern Ukrainian periodicals in the Balkans (on the example of «Nova dumka» and «Ridne slovo» magazines)

Ukraine is currently undergoing the most severe period in modern history. In this sense, a very important task for the authorities and society is to establish interaction with the civil society of European countries, to strengthen relations with the people of the Balkan Peninsula, with whom Ukrainians are connected by common spiritual and cultural heritage. the descendants of immigrants from Ukrainian lands – Ukrainians and Ruthenians – have been living on the territory of Croatia and Serbia for several centuries. In addition to historical, cultural and political interests, this article has a journalistic scientific interest, because the official periodicals of the Croatian Ruthenians («Nova Dumka») and the Serbian Ukrainians («Ridne Slovo») for the years 2021-2022 are subject to analysis. The analysis of the implementation of the state policy towards the Balkan Ruthenians and Ukrainians based on the research of the periodicals can be useful for the political circles of Ukraine. Studying the cultural activities of representatives of the Ukrainian diaspora in the countries of the former Yugoslavia, scientists also paid some attention to periodicals. At the same time, the recent events in Ukraine that shook the whole world, for obvious reasons, have not yet come into the focus of such scientists. This article is based on the study of the topics and issues of the periodicals «Nova Dumka» and «Ridne Slovo». Genre features were also investigated. A comparative analysis of journalistic tools used by editors and contributors was conducted. The results of the study allow us to draw conclusions about a certain similarity in the construction of periodicals, the coincidence of genre preferences of the authors. The Ruthenian and Ukrainian periodicals also share an interest in such topics as the government’s activities in the field of national minorities, cultural events, the spiritual life of ethnic groups, and the historical memory of Ruthenians and Ukrainians. At the same time, the painful consequences of the war in the Balkans, which took place at the end of the 20th century, were most vividly reflected in the publications in «Nova Dumka». Both periodicals are interested in Ukrainian topics. A sharp surge in the number of relevant publications took place after the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Russia on the territory of Ukraine. Support for Ukraine, sympathy and readiness to help Ukrainian refugees became the leitmotif of publications in «Nova Dumka» and Ridne Slovo» in the winter and spring of 2022. The results achieved during the research allow us to assess the specifics of modern european periodicals, to learn about the peculiarities of the internal politics of the Balkan states, and to draw conclusions about the problems and social attitudes of Ruthenians and Ukrainians in Eastern Europe.

Knowledge mapping of immunotherapy for allergic rhinoconjunctivitis

Allergic rhinoconjunctivitis (ARC) is a common chronic inflammatory disease. Numerous studies on the treatment of ARC have been published. By contrast, there are few bibliometric studies on immunotherapy for ARC. The purpose of this article is to describe the current treatments for ARC and to identify the trends in immunotherapy for ARC. Publications were searched from the Web of Science (WOS) Core Collection on April 25, 2022. CiteSpace and Microsoft Excel software were used for further bibliometric analysis. A total of 969 publications on immunotherapy for ARC in English were retrieved. The number of relevant publications has been continuously increasing over the past 20 years, with many of the publications coming from Germany and the United States of America. In terms of institutions, the ALK Company in Denmark, Imperial College London in United Kingdom, and Charite-Universitatsmedizin Berlin in Germany published the most articles on immunotherapy for ARC. Meanwhile, Allergy and Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology published the most number of studies, and Oliver Pfaar from Germany authored the most number of articles. "Subcutaneous immunotherapy," "international consensus," "allergen immunotherapy," and "recommendation" were the most popular subjects. Thus, directions in research can be predicted as studies regarding mechanisms of ARC, clinical trials, and extracts have reported high-quality results. Over the past 20 years, the overall quality of research on immunotherapy for ARC has gradually improved, allowing the introduction of specific and targeted treatment. Currently, the main focus of ARC research is the novel routes of drug delivery and combined treatment with biological agents.

[Telemedical applications in ophthalmology in times of COVID-19].

HintergrundWährend der COVID-19-Pandemie war die augenärztliche Versorgung teilweise eingeschränkt.FragestellungEs wird ein Überblick über bereits verfügbare oder noch in Entwicklung befindliche teleophthalmologische Anwendungen zur besseren Versorgung während der Pandemie gegeben.Material und MethodeEs erfolgten die Auswertung aktueller wissenschaftlicher Publikationen, die Analyse von frei erhältlichen Screeninganwendungen in App-Stores mobiler Endgeräte sowie telemetrischer Medizinprodukte für Monitoringanwendungen und die Diskussion der Ansprüche an eine ophthalmologische Videosprechstunde.ErgebnisseDas gesteigerte Interesse an teleophthalmologischen Anwendungen spiegelt sich in einem deutlichen Anstieg von Publikationen zum Thema wider. Frei erhältliche Anwendungen für Smartphones und Tablets sind in der Regel nicht validiert und weisen teils starke Abweichungen von etablierten Standardtests auf. Telemedizinische Medizinprodukte zum Home-Monitoring bei chronischen Anwendungen bergen großes Potenzial, müssen sich aber erst im klinischen Alltag durchsetzen.SchlussfolgerungenEs besteht ein hoher Bedarf an systematischer Analyse, Weiterentwicklung und Validierung von telemedizinischen Anwendungen und Medizinprodukten für die Ophthalmologie, um das Potenzial der Telemedizin gewinnbringend zu nutzen und in einer ophthalmologischen Videosprechstunde zu bündeln.

Lease Finance in Nigeria: Current Status, Challenges and Future Prospects

Objective – The Leasing industry in Nigeria is witnessing increased demand for assets under a given prevalence of rising domestic costs of purchase, shortage of foreign exchange for imports as well as persistent depreciation of the Naira. The objective of this paper is to analyze the current state of lease financing in Nigeria, the prospects and challenges with a view to assess the capacity of the industry to continue to provide this form of finance. Design/methodology –The paper adopts an exploratory research design with references to publications, websites and research articles relevant to the subject matter. A number of relevant publications on leasing in Nigeria were duly explored. Results – Our findings show that, the volume of lease finance has consistently grown over the last 14 years (2005-2018). Finance leases volume totaled 1.68 trillion naira in 2018 alone. Banks as market participants in the Nigerian lease industry finance other non-bank lessors while the non-bank lessors account for about 80% of lease transactions mostly to Micro, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (MSMEs). Funding remains a major challenge restricting provision of leases to general supporting equipment and constraining leases of specialized assets (big-ticket leases). Prospects for lease finance obtain in terms of rising popularity of operating leases with lessors and lessees, attributable to the inherent mitigation against default risk. There is also potential for a growing customer base beyond MSMEs, with the influx of patronage by listed corporate firms especially those in the healthcare and education sectors. We identified financing partnerships, development of sound corporate governance practices, hastened inauguration of the Equipment Leasing Registration Authority and increased sensitization of potential leasehold product consumers on the benefits of lease finance, as critical success factors for the lease industry in Nigeria.

Trends and Development in the Antibiotic-Resistance of Acinetobacter baumannii: A Scientometric Research Study (1991-2019).

ObjectiveData visualization software were used to display and analyze the research status, hotspot and development trend of the antibiotic-resistance of Acinetobacter baumannii objectively and comprehensively, so as to provide guidance and reference for the research of the antibiotic-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii.Materials and MethodsThe data of relevant publications on antibiotic-resistant Acinetobacter baumanii from 1991 to 2019 were retrieved from Web of Science (WOS) Core database. VOSviewer and CiteSpace software were used to conduct co-citation visualization network rendering and cluster analysis on the publications’ years, authors, countries, institutions, keywords and citations.ResultsA total of 3915 valid records on the study of antibiotic-resistant Acinetobacter baumanii were retrieved. The number of relevant publications was increasing year after year. The United States is the most influential country in the field, which works closely with other countries and publishes most of the papers. University of Sydney is the leading institution in this area. Bonomo Robert A publishes most of the papers. There are the highest number of publications in the research areas of antimicrobial agents and chemotherapy. “Nucleotide sequence” and “outbreak” were once the hotspots in this field, but recently “bacteriophage”, “biofilm” and “colistin resistance” have become the research hotspots.ConclusionSince 1991, the number of publications on antibiotic-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii has grown rapidly, and various countries and institutions have paid close attention to the problem of antibiotic resistance. Countries, institutions and researchers, which have strong influential power, collaborate with each other closely. The future research direction of antibiotic-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii should lie in the further breakthrough of antibacterial peptides, bacteriophage therapy, CRISPR system and various combined therapies.

Ζητήματα Βιοηθικής της Βιοαστροναυτικής

The rise of emergent space initiatives -especially of private ones- has begun to push the boundaries of the space industry, thanks to technological innovations that will soon be able to significantly facilitate the development of previously neglected pioneering fields, such as, for example, space research and exploration, space resources utilization, and human access to space. The invigoration and the forthcoming growth of this new space economy in the aforementioned pioneering fields are expected to bring forward important bioethical issues. The purpose of this paper is to summarize the most important of these issues, after a review of a significant number of relevant publications in the international academic literature. In particular, this paper will present bioethical issues in the field of bioastronautics -especially in light of future missions to Mars- that refer to both life on Earth, i.e. microorganisms, plants, animals and humans, and to potential extraterrestrial life. Given the accelerating rate of developments, the best time to discuss these issues, in order to inform policymaking, is now.

Review of the use of neurophysiological and biometric measures in experimental design research

AbstractDesign is inherently affected by human-related factors and it is of no surprise that the fine-tuning of instruments capable of measuring aspects of human behavior has attracted interest in the design field. The recalled instruments include a variety of devices that capture and quantitatively assess people's unintentional and unconscious reactions and that are generally referred as neurophysiological or biometric. The number of experimental applications of these instruments in design was extremely limited as of 2016, when Lohmeyer and Meboldt published a first report on relevant measures and their interpretation in design. In the last few years, the number of relevant publications has increased dramatically and this determines the opportunity to carry out a comprehensive review in the field. The reviewed contributions are analyzed and classified according to, among others, instruments used, the kind of stakeholders involved and the supported design research activities. The role of biometric measures with respect to traditional research methods is emphasized too. The discussed instruments can represent supports or substitutes for traditional approaches, as well as they are capable of exploring phenomena that could not be addressed hitherto. The intensity of research concerning experiments with biometric measurements is discussed too; a particular focus of the final discussion is the individuation of obstacles that prevent them from becoming commonplace in design research.

FAUNISTIC DIVERSITY OF THE SPIDERS IN MONTENEGRO (ARACHNIDA: ARANEAE)

Although the European fauna of spiders is relatively well studied, in the Balkans still have places for which little or almost nothing is known, especially Kosovo, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Montenegro. The spider fauna of Montenegro is still poorly known, and the number of relevant publications is very low, even with catalogs and quoted information is about 90. Only for the cave fauna has more in-depth observations. The aim of this study is to summarize and presents all available data of the spiders of Montenegro, both from the literature and from original records. A total of 144 spider species were collected and after incorporating literature reports, the number of identified species is 289, from 38 families. From them 84 species and two families are new for the country. The presented study provides the first annotated checklist and catalog of the spiders in Montenegro (as a result of a database with 1150 rows/records) with additional taxonomic and faunistic data.

Zeta Potential of Food Matrices

Food matrices contain electrically charged particles, which interact with each other and with the media and are produced via several interface processes and mechanisms. The understanding of electric charge interactions is complex and essential towards the development of food systems since they can determine the type of particle-particle and particle-media interactions. They strongly affect stability, rheological behavior, sedimentation, re-dispersion, filtration, shelf life, texture, flavor, and color; thus, importantly influencing food structure and stability. One of the most useful parameters that allow the study of electric interactions in food systems is the zeta potential (ZP). It is possible to find a variety of laboratory instruments designed for its evaluation. ZP is an important property for the characterization of dispersed systems in which sample preparation and measuring methods play a key role to obtain reliable and reproducible results. The use of this parameter has increased in a number of fluid food systems such as alcoholic beverages, juices, extracts, coffee, milk, yoghurt, and edible films, most of which are described in this review. There is a wide amplitude in the number of relevant publications in the literature involving ZP for different products and this is reflected in the length of the different sections of this document. This work depicts a thorough review of the main theoretical principles, applications, and relevance of this parameter in food science and technology.

Component-based modelling of PEM fuel cells with bond graphs

A polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cell is a power generation device that transforms chemical energy contained within hydrogen and oxygen gases into useful electricity. The performance of a PEMFC unit is governed by three interdependent physical phenomena: heat, mass, and charge transfer. When modelling such a multi-physical system it is advantageous to use an approach capable of representing all the processes in a unified fashion.This paper presents a component-based model of PEMFCs developed using the bond graph (BG) technique in Modelica language. The basics of the BG method are outlined and a number of relevant publications are reviewed. Model assumptions and necessary equations for each fuel cell component are outlined. The overall model is constructed from a set of bond-graphic blocks within thermal, pneumatic and electrical domains.The model output was compared with the experimental data gathered from a two-cell stack and demonstrated a good accuracy in predicting system behaviour. In the future the designed model will be used for fuel cell reliability studies.

A bibliometric analysis of research on nursing models in countries other than China

Abstract Objectives To deepen our understanding of the status quo and to identify the hot topics and developmental trends of research on nursing models in countries other than China in the most recent decade. Methods The study subjects were the publications retrieved from the PubMed database using the MeSH terms of “Models, Nursing”. Bibliographic item co-occurrence mining system (BICOMS) software was used for conventional bibliometric analysis of publications during two time periods, 2005–2009 and 2010–2014. The number of published journal articles, journal distribution, authors of publications, country of origin of journals, and language of publications were analyzed to establish a high-frequency keyword profile and co-occurrence matrix. Graphical clustering toolkit (gCLUTO) software was applied for two-way clustering analysis and visualized analysis. Results A total of 1472 journal articles with a key theme of nursing models were retrieved for final analysis, including 771 published during 2005–2009 and 701 during 2010–2014. The bibliometric analysis revealed that publications other than China concerning nursing models were mostly concentrated in the United States and the United Kingdom and that the number of relevant publications has been continuously decreasing. The two-way clustering analysis showed that there were mainly four types of research themes in the relevant publications in countries other than China during 2005–2009, i.e., nursing education and theoretical research, clinical nursing and psychological care, nursing administration, and models of nursing education, whereas there were five types during 2010–2014, i.e., nursing theories and clinical nursing practice, nursing administration models and assessments of nurses' knowledge and skills, community nursing administration models, nursing human resource management, and nursing education models and approaches. Conclusions Research on nursing models in countries other than China is relatively mature and stable with a broader view, but it has shown a declining trend in recent years. It emphasizes both theory and practice, with research content tending to be structured into four modules, i.e., nursing education, administration, clinical practice, and theoretical research. Community nursing models may become a key research direction in the international research on nursing models in the future.

Introduction to special section on Origins and Properties of Kappa Distributions: Statistical Background and Properties of Kappa Distributions in Space Plasmas

AbstractEmpirical kappa distributions provide a straightforward replacement of the Maxwell distribution for systems out of thermal equilibrium such as space plasmas. Kappa distributions have become increasingly widespread across space physics with the number of relevant publications following, remarkably, an exponential growth rate. However, a breakthrough in the field came with the connection of kappa distributions with the framework of nonextensive statistical mechanics. This introductory paper clarifies fundamental physical concepts and provides mathematical formulations of the theory of kappa distributions, which are a consequence of the connection of kappa distributions with a solid statistical background. Among others, the paper presents the existence of a consistent definition of temperature in systems out of thermal equilibrium described by kappa distributions, the physical meaning of the kappa index, and the formulation of the kappa distribution of a Hamiltonian. In addition, the paper examines the most frequent values of kappa indices in space plasmas. Statistical analysis reveals trends between the characteristic values of density, temperature, and kappa index of space plasmas. Finally, understanding the kinetic interpretation of the temperature as the mean kinetic energy, and of the kappa index as the correlation of kinetic energies, helps to develop all the possible formulations of isotropic/anisotropic kappa distributions.

A Review on the Structure-Function Relationship Aspect of Polysaccharides from Tea Materials

Tea (Camellia sinensis) has a long history of medicinal use in the world. The chemical components of tea mainly consist of polyphenols (TPP), proteins, polysaccharides (TPS), chlorophyll, alkaloids, and so on. Great advances have been made in chemical and bioactive studies of catechins and TPP from tea in recent decades. However, the TPS from tea materials have received much less consideration than that of TPP. The number of relevant publications on the TPS from tea leaves and flowers has increased rapidly in recent years. This mini-review summarizes the structure-function relationship of TPS from tea leaves and flowers. The application of purified TPS from tea material as functional or nutritional foods was still little. It will help to develop the function foods with tea TPS and better understand the structure–bioactivity relationship of tea TPS.

Het aiothotraject, 15 jaar na de start

Den Engelsen C, Knottnerus BJ, Dinant GJ. Het aiothotraject, 15 jaar na de start. Huisarts Wet 2014;57(5):226–30. Sinds 1998 is het mogelijk om de huisartsopleiding te combineren met promotieonderzoek als ‘arts in opleiding tot huisarts en onderzoeker’ (aiotho). Ons doel was in kaart te brengen hoe het aantal aiotho’s zich heeft ontwikkeld en hoeveel zij bijdragen aan de wetenschappelijke ontwikkeling van de huisartsgeneeskunde. In de database van het landelijk aiothonetwerk bepaalden wij het totaal aantal aiothotrajecten tussen 1 januari 1998 en 1 juli 2012. In PubMed inventariseerden wij voor die periode het aantal huisartsgeneeskundig relevante publicaties waarin aiotho’s een aandeel hadden, en op basis van NHG-gegevens gingen wij na hoeveel aiotho’s deelnamen aan NHG-richtlijnwerkgroepen. De huidige werkzaamheden van oud-aiotho’s brachten wij in kaart met behulp van een vragenlijst. Op 1 juli 2012 bevatte de database 81 aiotho’s en 34 oud-aiotho’s, naast 16 ex-aiotho’s die het onderzoek of de opleiding voortijdig beeindigd hadden. Van de oud-aiotho’s waren er 33 (96%) werkzaam als huisarts en 13 (39%) als onderzoeker. Van de ex-aiotho’s die voortijdig met hun onderzoek gestopt waren, was het merendeel werkzaam als huisarts, geen enkele als onderzoeker. Zowel het aantal gestarte als het aantal met succes afgeronde aiothotrajecten toonde een globaal stijgende lijn, tot respectievelijk 11 en 7 in 2011. Dat gold ook voor het aantal huisartsgeneeskundig relevante onderzoeksartikelen in PubMed met een aiotho als (co)auteur: 80 in de eerste helft van 2012. Aiotho’s hadden zitting in de richtlijnwerkgroepen van 13 (15%) NHG-richtlijnen die op 1 juli 2012 gepubliceerd waren, en van 6 (38% ) richtlijnen die op dat moment in herziening waren. Aiotho’s leveren een groeiende bijdrage aan de wetenschappelijke ontwikkeling van de huisartsgeneeskunde in Nederland. Om uitval uit het promotietraject te verminderen zou meer aandacht kunnen uitgaan naar een goede onderzoeksopzet, een reele planning en goede begeleiding.

Factors That Affect Functional Capacity in Patients With Musculoskeletal Pain: A Delphi Study Among Scientists, Clinicians, and Patients

Lakke SE, Wittink H, Geertzen JH, van der Schans CP, Reneman MF. Factors that affect functional capacity in patients with musculoskeletal pain: a Delphi study among scientists, clinicians, and patients. ObjectiveTo reach consensus on the most important biopsychosocial factors that influence functional capacity results in patients with chronic nonspecific musculoskeletal pain, arranged in the framework of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health. DesignThree-round, internet-based Delphi survey. SettingNot applicable. ParticipantsParticipants were scientists, clinicians, and patients familiar with functional capacity testing. Scientists were invited through purposive sampling based on the number of relevant publications in peer-reviewed journals. The scientists recruited clinicians and patients through snowball sampling. InterventionsNot applicable. Main Outcome MeasuresConsensus was reached if at least moderate influence (25%) was achieved and an interquartile range of no more than 1 point was reached. ResultsThirty-three scientists, 21 clinicians, and 21 patients from 9 countries participated. Participants reached consensus on 6 factors that can influence the outcome of the lifting test, having a median of severe influence (50%–95%): catastrophic thoughts and fear, patient adherence to “doctor's orders,” internal and external motivation, muscle power, chronic pain behavior, and avoidance behavior. Motivation, chronic pain behavior, and sensation of pain were the top 3 factors affecting postural tolerance and repetitive movement functional capacity tests. Furthermore, participants reported 28 factors having a median of moderate influence (25%–49%) that could influence the outcome of lifting, postural tolerance, and repetitive movement tests. ConclusionsOverall, chronic pain behavior, motivation, and sensation of pain are the main factors that can influence functional capacity results. We recommend that scientists and clinicians, respectively, consider the most important factors when planning future studies and when interpreting functional capacity test results.

A Framework for Technology Forecasting and Visualization

This paper presents a novel framework for supporting the development of well-informed research policies and plans. The proposed methodology is based on the use of bibliometrics; i.e., analysis is conducted using information regarding trends and patterns of publication. Information thus obtained is analyzed to predict probable future developments in the technological fields being studied. While using bibliometric techniques to study science and technology is not a new idea, the proposed approach extends previous studies in a number of important ways. Firstly, instead of being purely exploratory, the focus of our research has been on developing techniques for detecting technologies that are in the early growth phase, characterized by a rapid increase in the number of relevant publications. Secondly, to increase the reliability of the forecasting effort, we propose the use of automatically generated keyword taxonomies, allowing the growth potentials of subordinate technologies to aggregated into the overall potential of larger technology categories. As a demonstration, a proof-of-concept implementation of each component of the framework is presented, and is used to study the domain of renewable energy technologies. Results from this analysis are presented and discussed.