1,720,974 research outputs found
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe 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
A Sustainable Combined Approach to Control the Microbial Bioburden in the School Environment
No full textThe indoor microbiome is a dynamic ecosystem including pathogens that can impact human health. In this regard, the school environment represents the main living space of humans for many years, and an unhealthy environment can significantly condition students’ health. School rooms can suffer from insufficient ventilation and the use of building materials that may favor pathogen contamination, mostly sanitized by conventional chemical-based methods, which can impact pollution, have temporary effects, and induce the selection of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in persistent microbes. In the search for sustainable and effective methods to improve the healthiness of the classroom environment, a pre–post case–control study was performed in an Italian high school. Over a year, different interventions were sequentially placed and evaluated for their impact on bioburden and air quality, including the introduction of plants, a mechanical ventilation system, and probiotic-based sanitation (PBS) in substitution for chemical sanitation. Through continuous microbial monitoring of the enrolled school rooms, via culture-dependent and -independent methods, a remarkable bioburden level was detected at baseline (around 12,000 and 20,000 CFU/m2, before and after classes, respectively), composed mostly of Staphylococcus spp. and fungi. Some decrease in fungal contamination was observed following the introduction of plants. Still, the most significant decrease in pathogens and associated AMR was detected following the introduction of ventilation and PBS, which decreased pathogen level by >80% (p < 0.001) and AMR by up to 3 Log10 (p < 0.001) compared to controls. Collected data support the use of combined strategies to improve indoor microbial quality and confirm that PBS can effectively control bioburden and AMR spread not only in sanitary environments
Probiotic‐Based Approaches for Sustainable Control of Infectious Risk in Mass Transport: Current Data and Future Perspectives
No full textThe built environments of high-traffic areas can play a significant role in the transmission of microorganisms and associated infections, sometimes favouring the selection of multidrug-resistant (MDR) organisms due to the excessive use of conventional disinfectants. Probiotic-based sanitation (PBS) was suggested as a novel alternative approach to control the infectious risk in crowded community environments due to its effectiveness in reducing fungal, bacterial, and viral pathogens in sanitary settings. PBS may thus trigger a paradigm shift from chemical to biological strategies in cleaning environments with high human occupancy, offering an ecological and economically sustainable alternative to conventional chemical disinfection. Providing robust data supporting the results reported so far, it has the potential to optimise bioburden control and infection prevention in mass transportation spaces. This review brings together existing research on PBS in mass transportation areas, pinpoints areas of lack of information, and explores its potential future uses, including the creation of probiotic-based materials for sustainable biocontrol in high-traffic areas
Potential use of phages as sanitizing agents to reduce hospital pathogens on hard surfaces
No full textIntroduction: Hospital-acquired infections (HAI) can be transmitted by pathogens persistently contaminating hospital surfaces,1 often multidrug-resistant (MDR), and not efficiently controlled by conventional sanitation protocols, which indeed contribute to selection of drug-resistant strains.2 Due to the selective killing of specific bacteria, bacteriophages have been repeatedly suggested as decontaminating agents.3,4 This work was aimed to assess phage usability as sanitizing agents in routine hospital sanitation.
Materials & Methods: Phage activity was assessed in vitro and in situ, in aqueous buffer or probiotic eco-sustainable detergents,5 on glass, plastic or ceramic surfaces artificially contaminated by S. aureus, E. coli and P. aeruginosa. Both ATCC strains and wild-type MDR hospital isolates were used, at a density consistent with what detected on hospital surfaces.
Results: Phage application significantly reduced (up to 90%) all tested bacteria on all treated surfaces. Notably, phages suspended in probiotic detergents not only retained their full activity, but resulted even more effective especially at later times.
Conclusions: Results suggest that phages might be successfully included in probiotic detergents currently used for hospital sanitation, potentially resulting in innovative products highly effective in the safe elimination of MDR nosocomial pathogens from the hospital environment.
References:
1. Otter JA, Yezli S, French GL. The role played by contaminated surfaces in the transmission of nosocomial pathogens. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2011; 32(7): 687-99.
2. Wand ME, Bock LJ, Bonney LC, Sutton JM. Mechanisms of Increased Resistance to Chlorhexidine and Cross-Resistance to Colistin following Exposure of Klebsiella pneumoniae Clinical Isolates to Chlorhexidine. Antimicrob Agents Chemother 2017; 61(1).
3. Jensen KC, Hair BB, Wienclaw TM, et al. Isolation and Host Range of Bacteriophage with Lytic Activity against Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus and Potential Use as a Fomite Decontaminant. PLoS One 2015; 10(7): e0131714.
4. Tomat D, Quiberoni A, Mercanti D, Balague C. Hard surfaces decontamination of enteropathogenic and Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli using bacteriophages. Food Res Int 2014; 57: 123-9.
5. Caselli E, D'Accolti M, Vandini A, et al. Impact of a Probiotic-Based Cleaning Intervention on the Microbiota Ecosystem of the Hospital Surfaces: Focus on the Resistome Remodulation. PLoS One 2016; 11(2): e0148857
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“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
Get PDFWe 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
Get PDFWe 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
Corrigendum: Efficient removal of hospital pathogens from hard surfaces by a combined use of bacteriophages and probiotics: Potential as sanitizing agents (Infect Drug Resist 2018, (11) (1015-1026), 10.2147/IDR.S170071)
No full textPurpose
Many hospital-acquired infections (HAI) can be transmitted by pathogens contaminating hospital surfaces, not efficiently controlled by conventional sanitation, which can indeed contribute to the selection of multidrug-resistant (MDR) strains. Bacteriophages have been suggested as decontaminating agents, based on their selective ability to kill specific bacteria. However, there are no data on their stability in detergents and their potential use in routine sanitation. On the other hand, a probiotic-based sanitation (Probiotic Cleaning Hygiene System, PCHS) was recently shown to stably reduce pathogens on treated surfaces. However, its action is not specific and slow, being based on competitive antagonism. This work was aimed to assess the effectiveness of a combined use of phages and PCHS in removing HAI-associated pathogens from different hard surfaces.
Methods
The decontamination ability of phages in PCHS was tested in vitro and in situ, against drug-susceptible or resistant S. aureus, E. coli and P. aeruginosa strains, and using bacterial densities similar to those detected on hospital surfaces.
Results
Phages targeted efficiently all tested bacteria, maintaining their full activity when added to PCHS detergent. Notably, the combined use of phages and PCHS not only resulted in a rapid reduction (up to >90%) of the targeted pathogens, but, due to the stabilizing effect of probiotics, the pathogens were maintained at low levels (>99%) also at later times, when instead the effect of phages tends to diminish.
Conclusion
These results suggest that a combined biological system might be successfully used in hospital sanitation protocols, potentially leading to an effective and safe elimination of MDR pathogens from the hospital environment
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