1,721,113 research outputs found
Determinazione degli steroli plasmatici ed eritrocitari di pazienti affetti da difetti della biosintesi e del metabolismo del colesterolo.
No full textNuovo metodo GC-FID per l’analisi rapida del colesterolo e del 7-DHC da spot di sangue intero su carta bibula pre-trattata con stabilizzante.
No full textUrinary neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) as early marker of delayed graft function in kidney transplanted patients
No full textBACKGROUND. Kidney transplantation is frequently complicated by delayed graft function (DGF). DGF means the necessity of resorting to the dialysis treatment within a week after kidney transplantation. DGF may be dependent on the donor, the recipient, and the graft itself. DGF is associated with more frequent episodes of acute rejection, increased need of post-transplantation biopsies, dialysis sessions and prolonged hospitalization. These complications not only increase the costs of transplantation but they also have negative impact on long-term survival. Urinary NGAL, is regarded as acute kidney injury marker. This preliminary study aimed at evaluating whether NGAL may be used as early predictor of DGF in kidney transplanted patients.
METHODS. Urinary analysis of NGAL (Architect, Abbott), creatinine (Modular, Roche), NGAL/creatinine ratio, and daily NGAL excretion were performed in the samples from 14 renal transplant recipients on post-transplantation days 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
RESULTS. DGF was observed in 3 patients (21,2 %). Urinary NGAL concentrations (ng/mL) were broadly variable. Using the analysis of variance (ANOVA), the patients who did not experience DGF (n=11) showed that only NGAL/creatinine ratio (ng/mg of creat) and NGAL excretion (mg/day) were significantly lower (p < 0.05) on day 2, 3, 4, and 5 compared to day 1. Moreover, patients who experienced DGF the levels of NGAL excreted were significantly lower (p < 0.05) during the first observational day compared to non-DGF-patients. It is worth mentioning that the levels of NGAL excreted in patients who experienced DGF were low during the first two days, afterward, at the 5th day NGAL levels were statistically increased (p = 0.016) compared to non-DGF-patients.
CONCLUSIONS. The data of the present study provide additional information on clinical use of urinary NGAL measurements. The values of NGAL/creatinine ratio and NGAL excretion measured during the first days following kidney transplantation could be considered as early predictors of DGF. Although the sample size of this study does not permit to draw strong conclusions, the data attained may be hypothesis generating for larger controlled studies
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
Sterol and steroid catabolites from cholesterol produced by the psychrophile Pseudoalteromonas haloplanktis
Full text linkPseudoalteromonas haloplanktis, a psychrotrophilic marine bacterium of biotechnological interest, shows anti-biofilm properties
and is particularly relevant for cold storage of vacuum packed seafood. We focused our interest on the activation of cholesterol
metabolism in this bacterium as the presence in its genome of a putative 3-ketosteroid-Δ1-dehydrogenase. This study reports
GC-MS and LC-MS/MS profiles of sterols/steroids and their derivatives found in cell extracts of P. haloplanktis grown in a medium
with a low content of cholesterol. Here, for the first time, we suggest that P. haloplanktis produces some intermediates of
cholesterol catabolism, putatively identified as 24-hydroxycholest-1,4-dien-3-one-26-oic acid, chol-1,4-dien-3-one-24-oic acid,
26-hydroxycholest-4-en-3-one, and pregn-4-en-3-one-20-carboxylic acid, a finding already reported in other microorganisms.
The presence of these compounds, also considered steroid precursors, produced by P. haloplanktis in vacuum packed seafood
could be of interest for healthy of consumers, as well as, for biotechnological applications in pharmaceutical industry
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
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