1,720,970 research outputs found
The role of tandem mass spectrometry in clinical chemistry: quantification of steroid hormones and vitamin D
No full textNowadays tandem mass spectrometry coupled to liquid chromatography is considered as the "gold standard" technique for steroid hormones quantification in biological fluids. Its emerging role in the clinical laboratories is mainly due to its capability to overcome the main limitations of the widespread immunoassays (IAs), providing, at the same time, the simultaneous quantification of several steroids of interest. This is a very important feature, as it allows, just in a single analysis, the monitoring of some key steroids in a metabolic pathway. In this chapter, we will describe the instrumental layout to be used in the measurement of clinically relevant steroids or steroid panels, and we will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of tandem mass spectrometry with respect to the main IA-based assays. The quantification of the main metabolites of vitamin D, 25-hydroxyvitamin D3, which is considered a steroid hormone, is also discussed in the chapter. Applications concerning 11β-HSD enzyme activity, 21-hydroxylase deficiency in newborns, hypovitaminosis D in patients with heart failure and vitamin D intoxication are discussed
Quantification of D-mannose in plasma: Development and validation of a reliable and accurate HPLC-MS-MS method
Full text linkThe present paper describes the development and the validation process – in compliance with the EMA guidelines – of a method based on tandem mass spectrometry coupled to liquid chromatography for the accurate quantification of mannose in human plasma samples. The quick sample preparation procedure, simplified by the absence of any derivatization step, makes the assay suitable for routine use in a clinical chemistry laboratory. The method validation yielded satisfactory selectivity, with a good separation of mannose from its epimers (glucose and galactose), linearity over the whole concentration range of interest (0.31–40 μg/mL), reproducibility with RSD <10%, and accuracy in the range 96 – 104%. Instrumental LLOD (0.31 μg/mL) and LLOQ (1.25 μg/mL) were good enough to detect endogenous plasma mannose levels and in agreement with recent data from the literature. Sensitivity was affected by a 5-fold dilution factor, which, if necessary, can be reduced. The method robustness was proven in more than 600 injections, most of them being of plasma samples, used also to assess the reference ranges in healthy subjects (9.93 ± 3.37 μg/mL) and type 2 diabetic patients (23.47 ± 6.19 μg/mL)
HPLC-MS/MS method for simultaneous analysis of plasma 2-hydroxybutyrate and 2-hydroxyisobutyrate: Development and clinical significance
No full textRecent studies have identified relationships between diabetes mellitus and short-chain fatty acids, including 2-hydroxybutyrate (2-HB) and 2-hydroxyisobutyrate (2-HiB); 2-HB has been associated to the early stages of insulin resistance, while 2-HiB with the risk and progression of complications of Type 1 diabetes. Their metabolism and pathophysiological role in humans are not fully clarified. The possible association between 2-HB and 2-HiB and diabetes mellitus was investigated with a novel mass spectrometry-based assay, capable of discriminating plasma 2-HiB and 2-HB from their HB isomers. Accuracy and precision (RSD%) were always in the range 99–102% and 0.7–3.5%, respectively. The study involved samples from subjects with normal glucose tolerance (NGT) and Type 2 diabetes (T2D), originally included in a multicenter study investigating mechanisms involved in atherothrombosis. NGT subjects exhibited concentrations of 2-HB and 2-HiB of 61 (36) and 3.1 (1.9) μmol/L, median (interquartile range), respectively, that were significantly lower than those of the T2D patients, whose values were 74 (4.0) and 3.8 (2.9) μmol/L, respectively. The pattern of association of these molecules with clinical and metabolic variables is partially different: both compounds were directly related to male sex, BMI, HbA1c, and plasma glucose, 2-HiB also with age, systolic blood pressure, and HDL-cholesterol. Furthermore, they correlate with free fatty acids, glycerol, and triglyceride concentrations, but the latter correlation was negative for 2-HB and positive for 2-HiB. Results confirmed the clinical significance of 2-HB and 2-HiB, in differential association with metabolic features of T2D
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
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