1,720,968 research outputs found
Preliminary investigation of haematological and biochemical parameters as prognostic markers in dogs with severe inflammation
Full text linkNowadays, the search for reliable prognostic markers in dogs with diseases causing severe systemic inflammation is widely issued. In fact, an early diagnosis would allow a better therapeutic management and a direct communication between the clinician and the owner about the patient's outcome.
The aim of this study was to evaluate the possible role of basic haematological and biochemical parameters, in addition to inflammatory markers, such as C-Reactive Protein (CRP) and Paraoxonase-1 (PON-1), as prognostic markers in dogs with severe inflammation, regardless of the underlying disease.
In this retrospective study, 24 dogs with a definitive diagnosis and a known outcome were enrolled; the presence of systemic clinical signs related to inflammation and the availability of blood smears, haematological and biochemical data were necessary, whereas dogs with the absence of the aforementioned criteria and the diagnosis of neoplasia were excluded.
Definitive diagnosis of this study included pyometra (4), pancreatitis (3), pneumonia (3) and other diseases with 2 or less cases (e.g. parvovirosis, cholecystitis).
Results obtained after dichotomization of numerical data in two groups (survivors vs non-survivors) were compared to each other using a non-parametric t-test for independent samples (U Mann Whitney test).
Although non-regenerative anaemia was the most common haematological finding (58% of the
caseload) it hasn’t been correlated with the outcome in this study.
Three parameters were statistically related to the outcome: white blood cell (WBC) count (median value in survivors 28,20 vs 15,34 x 10 3/μL; P = 0.033), glucose (median value in survivors 119 vs 96 mg/dL in non survivors; P = 0.031) and urea (median value in survivors 57 vs 31 mg/dL in non survivors; P = 0.028) with higher values in the survivors group.
In the present study, CRP and PON-1 lacked difference in terms of statistical significance, median values and data distribution according to the outcome.
Further studies on a wider and less heterogeneous caseload in terms of underlying disease and therapeutic management would allow to better define the prognostic value of the evidenced parameters
Big endothelin-1 in cats with CKD : preliminary evaluation
Full text linkIn human medicine the concentration of serum endothelin-1 (ET-1)increases in hypertension and CKD. Also urinary ET-1 correlates withthe severity of renal disease and the magnitude of proteinuria. In dogs,increased concentration of ET-1, evaluated indirectly by the precursorBig Endothelin-1 (big-ET1), seems to be associated with the severityof CKD and hypertension.The aim of this study was to gain information about serum and urinarylevels of big-ET1 in cats with CKD, with and without hypertensionand proteinuria
References intervals in Shetland sheepdogs: is primary hyperlipidemia a real feature in this breed?
Full text linkClinical decisions are often based on the comparison of patient’s laboratory results with reference intervals (RI). Several breeds have physiological peculiarities that induce variations in RI compared to the general canine population. However, no information is available about the need to establish breed-specific RI for Shetland Sheepdogs, a breed reported to be potentially affected by physiological hyperlipidemia.
The aim of this study is to determine whether RI referred to the general canine population may be applied to Shetland Sheepdogs from Italy, and to determine breed-specific RI, when the general RI were not validated
Genetic evaluation of English bulldogs with cystine uroliths
No full textIN DOGS, only 3 per cent of urolithiasis is represented by a cystine (Ling and others 1998, Osborne and others 1999); according to Bartges and others (1994), English bulldogs are characterised by a cystine urolith frequency 32 times higher than any other dog. In 1977, Brown and others examined 438 uroliths. Among these, 95 were made of a cystine and were mainly found in English bulldogs, Newfoundlands and dachshunds. Later, Chew and others (2011) published research listing the same breeds as the most affected by cystinuria. In English bulldogs, four mutations have been identified at the homozygous level in the SLC3A1 gene, whereas two mutations have been described in the SLC7A9 gene (Harnevik and others 2006). In a recent study, Brons and others (2013) suggested a new classification for cystinuria, which seems to have different characters and involve different genes depending on the breed. In labrador retrievers and mixed breeds, cystinuria is described as an autosomic-recessive disease involving the SLC3A1 gene; in Australian cattle dogs, the disease seems to be autosomic dominant.
The aim of this study was to investigate the association between cystine uroliths in some English bulldogs and the genetic mutations in the SLC3A1 and SLC7A9 genes
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
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