1,721,558 research outputs found
Comparison of the ATB® Fungus 2 with the AFST-EUCAST for in vitro susceptibility testing of Candida spp
Get PDFABSTRACTThe increase of diseases caused by Candida spp., and the treatment failures, has underscored the need for testing the susceptibilities to antifungal agents. The commercial panel ATB® Fungus 2 was compared with the reference testing method of the European Subcommittee on Antifungal Susceptibility Testing of the Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (AFST-EUCAST) for the evaluation of the susceptibility of isolates of Candida spp. to three agents. The percentage of agreement was calculated based on the minimum inhibitory concentrations. There was a high correlation for AMB (100% ? = 1.0 Bhapkar coefficient p = 1.0); while it was lower with azoles (85%, ? = 0.41, p = Bhapkar coefficient 0.02 and 83.0%, ? = 0.15, Bhapkar coefficient p = 0.0006, respectively). The ATB® Fungus 2 and AFST-EUCAST are fully comparable methods for testing the susceptibility to AMB and to lesser extend comparable for ITR and FCA.Keywords: antifungal susceptibility, Candida spp., ATB® Fungus 2, AFST-EUCAST Comparación de las técnicas de susceptibilidad in vitro para Candida spp. ATB® FUNGUS 2 y AFST-EUCASTRESUMEN El aumento de infecciones por Candida spp. y de las fallas en los tratamientos, suscitan la necesidad de pruebas de susceptibilidad. Se comparó la marca comercial ATB® Fungus 2 con la técnica estándar del Subcomité para las Pruebas de Sensibilidad Antifúngica de la Unión Europea, de la Sociedad de Microbiología Clínica y Enfermedades Infecciosas (AFST-EUCAST) para evaluar la susceptibilidad de aislamientos de Candida spp. a tres antifúngicos. Con base en las concentraciones inhibitorias mínimas se calculó el porcentaje de acuerdo. La concordancia para anfotericina B (AMB) fue alta (100% ? = 1.0, Coeficiente de Bhapkarp = 1.0); para itraconazol (ITR) y fluconazol (FCA) fue inferior (85% ? = 0.41, Coeficiente de Bhapkarp =0.02 y 83.0 %, ? = 0.15, Coeficiente de Bhapkarp = 0.0006, respectivamente). Por lo tanto, ambas técnicas son comparables para la evaluación de la susceptibilidad a AMB; con los azoles el porcentaje de acuerdo es menor.Palabras clave: susceptibilidad antifúngica, Candida spp., ATB® Fungus 2, AFST-EUCAST. Forma de citar: Montiel Ramos JE, Corrales Bernal A, Vélez Bravo MP, Baena Zapata A, Mesa Arango AC. Comparación de las técnicas de susceptibilidad in vitro para Candida spp. ATB® FUNGUS 2 y AFST-EUCAST. rev.univ.ind.santander.salud 2104; 46 (1): 7-14
Comparison of the ATB® Fungus 2 with the AFST-EUCAST for in vitro susceptibility testing of Candida spp
No full textABSTRACTThe increase of diseases caused by Candida spp., and the treatment failures, has underscored the need for testing the susceptibilities to antifungal agents. The commercial panel ATB® Fungus 2 was compared with the reference testing method of the European Subcommittee on Antifungal Susceptibility Testing of the Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (AFST-EUCAST) for the evaluation of the susceptibility of isolates of Candida spp. to three agents. The percentage of agreement was calculated based on the minimum inhibitory concentrations. There was a high correlation for AMB (100% ? = 1.0 Bhapkar coefficient p = 1.0); while it was lower with azoles (85%, ? = 0.41, p = Bhapkar coefficient 0.02 and 83.0%, ? = 0.15, Bhapkar coefficient p = 0.0006, respectively). The ATB® Fungus 2 and AFST-EUCAST are fully comparable methods for testing the susceptibility to AMB and to lesser extend comparable for ITR and FCA.Keywords: antifungal susceptibility, Candida spp., ATB® Fungus 2, AFST-EUCAST Comparación de las técnicas de susceptibilidad in vitro para Candida spp. ATB® FUNGUS 2 y AFST-EUCASTRESUMEN El aumento de infecciones por Candida spp. y de las fallas en los tratamientos, suscitan la necesidad de pruebas de susceptibilidad. Se comparó la marca comercial ATB® Fungus 2 con la técnica estándar del Subcomité para las Pruebas de Sensibilidad Antifúngica de la Unión Europea, de la Sociedad de Microbiología Clínica y Enfermedades Infecciosas (AFST-EUCAST) para evaluar la susceptibilidad de aislamientos de Candida spp. a tres antifúngicos. Con base en las concentraciones inhibitorias mínimas se calculó el porcentaje de acuerdo. La concordancia para anfotericina B (AMB) fue alta (100% ? = 1.0, Coeficiente de Bhapkarp = 1.0); para itraconazol (ITR) y fluconazol (FCA) fue inferior (85% ? = 0.41, Coeficiente de Bhapkarp =0.02 y 83.0 %, ? = 0.15, Coeficiente de Bhapkarp = 0.0006, respectivamente). Por lo tanto, ambas técnicas son comparables para la evaluación de la susceptibilidad a AMB; con los azoles el porcentaje de acuerdo es menor.Palabras clave: susceptibilidad antifúngica, Candida spp., ATB® Fungus 2, AFST-EUCAST. Forma de citar: Montiel Ramos JE, Corrales Bernal A, Vélez Bravo MP, Baena Zapata A, Mesa Arango AC. Comparación de las técnicas de susceptibilidad in vitro para Candida spp. ATB® FUNGUS 2 y AFST-EUCAST. rev.univ.ind.santander.salud 2104; 46 (1): 7-14
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe 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
Reinforcement Learning for Robot Navigation with Adaptive Forward Simulation Time (AFST) in a Semi-Markov Model
Get PDFDeep reinforcement learning (DRL) algorithms have proven effective in robot
navigation, especially in unknown environments, by directly mapping perception
inputs into robot control commands. However, most existing methods ignore the
local minimum problem in navigation and thereby cannot handle complex unknown
environments. In this paper, we propose the first DRL-based navigation method
modeled by a semi-Markov decision process (SMDP) with continuous action space,
named Adaptive Forward Simulation Time (AFST), to overcome this problem.
Specifically, we reduce the dimensions of the action space and improve the
distributed proximal policy optimization (DPPO) algorithm for the specified
SMDP problem by modifying its GAE to better estimate the policy gradient in
SMDPs. Experiments in various unknown environments demonstrate the
effectiveness of AFST
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“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
Get PDFWe 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
Get PDFWe 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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