1,720,958 research outputs found
Wastewater analysis and drug consumption. Useful assessment tool
No full textDrug use in Europe is now more than ever a multifaceted issue involving a broad and ever-changing range of substances. Alarmingly, recent European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) reports show that roughly 83 million adults aged between 15 and 64 years in the European Union have used illicit substances at least once in their lifetime. Polydrug use is rife, and consumption patterns range from experimental/occasional, habitual use all the way to addiction. Traditional epidemiological methods delineating drug abuse specifics (i.e. number of users, age groups, specific characteristics and patterns of use) are questionnaire-based and therefore present the classic biases linked to the selected sample, thus risking an underestimation of the phenomenon. The Mario Negri IRCCS Pharmacological Research Institute has developed a new population screening method based on wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) which makes it possible to detect drug metabolites in waste water and to estimate which and how many substances are consumed by the entire population belonging to the wastewater treatment plant being monitored. Such a technique has gained great interest at the national and international level, and may be especially valuable as a detection/monitoring tool at a time when novel psychoactive substances have come to trigger a major public health crisis, on account of their elusiveness and potential as substitutes/adulterants of traditional substances of abuse
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
An atypical gunshot suicide: a case report and a literature overview
No full textBackground: Gunshot suicides are more common in those people who live in countries with greater cultural accessibility of firearms and whose weapon's availability and use are easier. In the case of suicide by firearm, the most typical site of the entrance hole is represented by the temple, the forehead or the submental region, while only in a smaller percentage of cases is intra-oral. Case report: We present a particular case of suicide of an 85-year-old man, using a single-charge, short-barrelled firearm. The shot was fired on contact, with the entrance hole located at the tongue. The bullet remained held inside the body and there was no exit hole on the skin. A rigorous and multidisciplinary methodological approach was adopted, including an accurate judicial inspection of the environment, an anamnestic collection, an autoptic procedure completed by macroscopic and microscopic examination of the entrance hole and internal organs, and a radiological examination. Conclusions: In cases of gunshot suicide involving the intra-oral region, the tongue is rarely affected. Normally, the victim points the weapon upwards and the bullet follows this direction. When the entrance hole is on an atypical site, and different from the skin, and the trajectory are inusual, the interpretation of the dynamic of the event is more complex. So, it is essential to conduct a complete investigation, including the information of the forensic examination, with the data emerged in autopsy, radiological and histological examination
A rare case of suicide by bleach fatal ingestion: a case report and a literature overview
Full text linkBackground: Nowadays it is estimated that worldwide more than 700 000 people die by suicide every year and a greater amount attempt this practice. Suicide is the fourth cause of death among 15-29 years old people. Sodium Hypochlorite (NaOCl) is used in household and com-mercial bleaches and due to its easy availability, accidental exposure to or intentional ingestion of NaOCl occurs frequently. In most cases health effects are only transient but if the subject ingests a large amount of this substance, this can generate severe consequences as oesophageal or stomach lesions and electrolytic imbalance. In the present study we analyse a rare case of suicide by fatal ingestion of bleach. Case report: Case of a caucasic 47 years old woman with a background of several suicide attempts by exogenous substance ingestion that was found death alone in her apartment. The purpose of our investigation was identifying the cause of death. A rigorous and multidisciplinary methodological approach was adopted, including an accurate judicial inspection of the environment, an anamnestic collection, an autoptic procedure completed by macro and microscopic examinations of internal organs and a toxicological examination of biological fluids. Furthermore, a literature overview of similar cases was carried out. The resulting evidence demonstrates that woman's death occurred after a massive bleach ingestion. Conclusions: This case report highlights the importance of forensic methodology in investigating the ingestion of exogenous substances. Crime scene investigation, a detailed post-mortem examination, toxicology and a complete histopathological study are mandatory to solve the enigma
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