1,720,962 research outputs found
Migrant oral care needs: public health service vs. charitable organization, Rome
No full textAim:To provide an accurate profile of cultural diversity in customs and needs for dental care among immigrants in Rome, Italy. Collecting data on immigrant populations and their health needs is crucial, in order to develop effective care delivery.
Methods: A questionnaire was used between September 2006 and March 2007, for out-patients, at their first visit to two primary
oral health care clinics (national public health service - NPHS and a charitable organisation - CO) in Rome. Socio economic
status (SES), access to general and oral health care and OHRQoL were assessed. Illegal immigrants were classified where
they did not have a personal identification card. Verbal consent of respondents was recorded. Permission of the Director of the
Department of Stomatology and Dental Clinic Caritas was given for the collection of data.
Results:The sample consisted of 250 subjects (144 Italian and 106 non-Italian). 100 out-patients of the CO and 150 of NPHS. Immigrants made up 81% of the CO sample and 16% in the NPHS sample (p<0.001). Overall, women represented 57% (N=144) of respondents. Patients attending the CO were significantly younger than those at the NPHS (p<0.001). The measures of SES showed significantly lower integration and more unemployment among CO patients, who also lacked information on access to care and more precarious employment, residential (10% homeless) and legal status. Almost all migrant patients had suffered from a dental problem
in the last year. Conclusion:Illegal immigrants prefer to access dental care provided by a voluntary organisation as it offers assistance, bypassing bureaucracy. Although access to health care by those who do not comply with the rules on residing in Italy should not require the presentation of documents or be reported to the authorities. Immigrants who use the NPHS are generally more integrated, and have been living in Italy for more than 5 years. Predictably, for immigrants, oral health is a low priority, and this should be regarded as a public health issue
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
Antiproliferative activities of Artemisia herba-alba ethanolic extract in human colon cancer cell line (HCT116)
No full textArtemisia herba-alba (AHE) is a plant commonly used in traditional medicine for the treatment of various ailments. Here, we investigated the antioxidant and antitumor activity of the aqueous and ethanol extracts of AHE in human
colon cancer HCT116 cells. The antioxidant activity was measured by DCFH assay, while antitumor effects were assessed by cell viability assays, cell cycle progression by flow cytometry, and DNA fragmentation analysis in addition to investigating the expression of key cell cycle and apoptotic proteins. While the aqueous extract had no antineoplastic effects, the ethanol extract significantly decreased HCT116 viability (IC50 of 51g/mL at 24 h) and inhibited the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Treatment of HCT116 cells with the ethanol extract also caused dramatic increase in the PreG1 population with concomitant decrease in cycling cells, provoked DNA fragmentation, significant increase in the expression levels of p53 and Bax proteins and activated pro-apoptotic caspase-3. The results obtained suggest that the ethanol extract of AHE could be used as an easily accessible source of natural antioxidants and as potential phytochemicals against colon cancer
Characterization of thymoquinone binding to human α(1) -acid glycoprotein
No full textThymoquinone (TQ) is the main bioactive component isolated from Nigella sativa essential oil and seeds and has been used for the treatment of inflammations, liver disorders, arthritis, and is of great importance as a promising therapeutic drug for different diseases including cancer. This paper reports the first experimental evidence on binding of TQ to human α(1) -acid glycoprotein (AGP), an important drug-binding glycoprotein in human plasma, which affects pharmacokinetic properties of various therapeutic agents. The interaction of TQ with AGP has been characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and fluorescence spectroscopy, as well as by molecular docking experiments. FTIR spectroscopy showed that the binding of TQ to AGP slightly increases its thermal stability and shifts the existence of a molten globule-like state observed in a previous study to higher temperature. The binding constants K(a) ; the number of binding sites n; and the corresponding thermodynamic parameters ΔG, ΔH, and ΔS at different temperatures were calculated through fluorescence spectroscopy. Fluorescence quenching experiments indicated that TQ binding involves hydrophobic interactions and to a lower extent hydrogen bonds, in agreement with molecular docking experiments. The data on binding ability of TQ to AGP represent basic information for the TQ pharmacokinetics such as drug metabolism and distribution in the body
B-ONJ BIPHOSFONATES-OSTEONECROSIS OF THE JAWS, REPORT ON CROMA MULTIDISCIPLINARY WORKING GROUP ACTIVITY AT SAPIENZA UNIVERSITY
No full textDispelling 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
- …
