1,720,968 research outputs found
Prevalence, characterisation and microbiological risk assessment of Bacillus cereus s.l. in ultra-high temperature chocolate milk
Full text linkUltra-high temperature chocolate milk is enjoyed by many due to its
convenience, portability and it is also recognised for its delicious taste. The milk‟s
sterilisation process is known to be able to inactivate microorganisms and bacterial
spores and further prolong the milk‟s shelf life. However, despite the efficiency of
sterilisation using UHT treatment, issues and outbreak regarding B. cereus in UHT milk were
still reported. Hence, this study was conducted to evaluate the microbiological risk
assessment of B. cereus s.l. in UHT chocolate milk. From this study, Bacillus spp. and B. cereus
s.l. were detected in 31.11% and 24.30% out of 214 UHT chocolate milk samples respectively via
MPN-PCR assay with MPN value ranged from less than 3 to more than 1100 MPN/ml. A total of
forty-nine B. cereus s.l. isolates obtained were screened for the presence of toxin genes using
PCR assay. The prevalence of diarrheagenic toxin genes bceT and nhe complex was 40.82% and
2.04% respectively, while the emetic toxin gene showed the prevalence of 20.41%. Clustering of
B. cereus s.l. isolates based on Rep-PCR showed that the isolates were genetically diverse. This
study also investigated the impact of temperature on B. cereus spore germination in UHT
chocolate milk. Results showed that temperature played a significant role in
B. cereus spore growth and germination. At 8 °C, there was no germination and growth of spores in
UHT chocolate milk; at 25 °C and 35 °C, spore showed rapid germination and growth, in which
germination and growth were more active at 35
°C. At the final stage of this study, an exposure assessment and risk estimate were modelled using
@RISK software by incorporating all the risk factors studied in order to investigate the risk of
consuming pathogenic B. cereus s.l.. The model estimated that incidence rate per 100,000 population
in Malaysia was 0.1936 for emetic B. cereus s.l. with 181 expected cases and 0.1302 with
19 expected cases for diarrheagenic B. cereus. s.l.. In conclusion, these findings suggest the need for continuous supervision, routine maintenance and regular cleaning during
production in order to minimize contamination, henceforth, lowering
consumption risk of pathogenic B. cereus s.l.
Prevalence and detection of vibrio cholerae in fruit juices and flavored drinks.
Full text linkThis research was conducted to study the prevalence of V. cholerae in fruit juices and flavored drinks in Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia. Most probable number (MPN) method and Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) assay were combined together in this research to determine the prevalence and number of Vibrio spp. and V. cholerae in fruit juices and flavored drinks. None of the isolates were belong to the O1 and O139 serogroups. Vibrio cholerae isolates obtained from the drink samples were assessed for their antibiotic resistance characteristic and Randomly Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) profile. A survival study of V. cholerae O1 in carrot juice were carried out to provide the data on its survival in cold temperature at different incubation time interval. The total prevalence of Vibrio spp. in drink samples from hawker stalls was 93.3%. Vibrio spp. was most predominant in iced milk rose syrup, iced milk corn syrup and iced carrot milk, each at 100% prevalence. In restaurants, the total prevalence of Vibrio spp.was 93.3%, showing highest detection in iced milk rose syrup, iced apple juice and iced carrot milk. The prevalence of Vibrio spp. in iced milk rose syrup and iced carrot milk was 100%, while iced apple juice was 81.8%. The total prevalence of V. cholerae in drink samples from hawker stalls was 36.7 %. V. cholerae was most predominant in iced apple juice with 53.3% prevalence. In restaurants, the total prevalence of V. cholerae was 20%, showing highest detection in iced carrot milk, which is 27.8% prevalence percentage. The analysis of 120 drink samples showed that the concentration of Vibrio spp. ranged from 2400 MPN/g while the concentration for V. cholerae ranged from <3 MPN/g to 2400 MPN/g. Thirty-eight V. cholerae isolates that were obtained by plating method were confirmed by PCR. During screening for O1 and O139, none of the isolates belong to this serogroups which are the main causative agent of cholera. Isolates obtained were subjected to Antibiotic Resistance Test. The tested isolates showed multi-resistance to as many as 11 antibiotics tested, with 97.3% resistant to erythromycin while majority were sensitive to ciprofloaxacin. RAPD-PCR profiles suggested that some of isolates that originated from different sources and locations were genotypically closely related. It has been reported that V. cholerae O1 has the ability to survive in cold temperature. Hence, the survival study of V. cholerae O1 in iced carrot juice was conducted. The survival study showed that V. cholerae O1 were unable to survive extreme temperature especially after a long incubation time. Vibrio cholerae O1 only showed growth at the beginning of incubation (0 hour), however, showed no growth after the 1st hour to the 6th hour of incubation
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
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
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
Author-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.
No full textAuthor-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.</p
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