186,615 research outputs found
The One Health approach: case studies between vector and food-borne diseases
No full textThe One Health (OH) approach intends to develop multi-sectoral collaborations to improve the health of people, animals, and the environment, and has been claimed to be central to facing actual global health challenges. Two experiences focusing on the OH approach are presented, exploring the implementation of a OH surveillance on vector-borne and food-borne diseases.
The experience of the MediLabSecure projects has led to a survey on early warning indicators, to be used in surveillance activities against relevant vector-borne diseases. Results showed that the collection of such indicators varies greatly in the 22 non-European countries involved. For example, information on animal population density is collected in all the countries, while information on wildlife is rarely collected. In the human sector, data on disease frequency or occurrence are frequently collected, as it happens for the presence of vectors in the area, which was the most collected indicator for the vector sector. At the same time, the collection of indicators related to climate and environment has to be strengthened, given the impact of these factors on arboviruses’ presence and transmission. Moreover, besides being fundamental in the implementation of OH early warning surveillance strategies, data sharing using digitalized databases was in place only in a few cases. Nevertheless, to propose effective solutions appropriate to the context, the interpretation of the results should be guided by the understanding of the background.
Within the context of the OHEJP MATRIX, another survey was performed: the purpose was the understanding and the mapping of surveillance activities in place against four food-borne pathogens, in all the sectors involved in four whole food production chains. The survey involved European countries and showed a very heterogeneous situation between countries and pathogens. To show this heterogeneity, results have been graphically mapped and displayed. As expected, the situation with the most differences between countries was observed in the wild boar meat food chain concerning HEV, which is an emerging threat in Europe and for which surveillance activities are still not harmonized.
The two case studies described the settings for further actions. The next suggested step in the implementation of the OH approach should be pursued through additional country-based studies, to verify the most suitable target areas for the application of the OH, and prioritize the efforts
L’ostetrica e la gravidanza fisiologica. Modelli, percorsi, esperienze di assistenza Indagine conoscitiva tra operatori e donne in gravidanza
No full text"L'ostetrica è l'operatore sanitario che, in possesso del diploma universitario abilitante e dell'iscrizione all'albo professionale, assiste e consiglia la donna nel periodo della gravidanza, durante il parto e nel puerperio..."
Così il DM 740/94 esordisce nell'intento di inquadrare il campo di attività proprio della figura professionale dell'ostetrica. Con questo decreto e con i successivi provvedimenti legislativi , la gravidanza fisiologica viene collocata a pieno titolo nell'ambito delle sue competenze, che essa esercita in termini di autonomia e responsabilità.
Nonostante queste premesse, la figura dell'ostetrica compare solo in minima parte nella pratica dell'assistenza alla gravidanza in Italia: le più recenti indagini statistiche sul percorso nascita in Italia attestano che la quota di donne assistite principalmente da un'ostetrica oscilla tra lo 0,8% e il 3,7%
Ma quale contesto si costituisce come sfondo per l'ostetrica che volesse impegnarsi nell'assistenza alla gravidanza fisiologica? Di quali orientamenti teorici e strumenti operativi può avvalersi per impostare il suo lavoro? Quali specificità può mettere in campo nell'esercizio di una funzione condivisa con altri operatori?
LA RICERCA
Suo obiettivo primario è stato quello di abbozzare lo scenario in cui si muove chi assiste la gravidanza, mettendo in luce non tanto il piano oggettivo dei protocolli adottati e dei risultati conseguiti, quanto quello dei vissuti e delle rappresentazioni dei soggetti coinvolti (donne a termine di gravidanza e operatori che si occupano di assistenza alla gravidanza).
Quale strumento adeguato rispetto a questo obiettivo si è utilizzata l'intervista semi-strutturata, la cui trascrizione è stata analizzata sia sul piano del dichiarato che su quello delle rappresentazioni affettive sottese al testo. . Per confermare e approfondire le immagini ed i significati emersi nell'analisi del testo sono stati utilizzati alcuni strumenti metodologici propri della ricerca psicosociale (tecniche di analisi linguistica e test di associazione).
Il campione è composto da 10 operatori e 20 donne a termine di gravidanza. In particolare:
- 5 medici, di cui 2 ginecologi che assistono privatamente donne in gravidanza, 2 ginecologi e 1 specializzanda che lavorano presso un ambulatorio pubblico.
- 5 ostetriche, di cui 3 assistono le gravide in regime di libera professione e 2 nell'ambito di un ambulatorio pubblico gestito in autonomia dalle stesse ostetriche.
- 10 donne assistite da medici ginecologi (DG); di queste, 3 sono state seguite nell'ambito di un ambulatorio ospedaliero
- 10 donne assistite da ostetrica (DO); di queste, 4 sono state seguite nell'ambito di un ambulatorio pubblico
Transcription factors and gene regulatory networks
No full textSpecific sensory and signaling systems allow living cells to gather and transmit information from the environment. All perceived signals are used in order to adjust cellular metabolism, growth, and development to environmental conditions. At the same time the cell is able to sense the intracellular milieu, e.g. energy and nutrient availability, redox state and so on and it accordingly adapts its physiological state. The importance of such changes in cellular processes is underlined by the presence of multiple regulatory systems (see Table 3.1), the most important of which controls the rate of transcription of a gene. The extremely different cell types in higher eukaryotes are a consequence of expression pattern differences, as well as cellular proliferation and differentiation, which are controlled by complex regulatory circuits originating space- and time-dependent transcriptional patterns. Thus, understanding the dynamic link between genotype and phenotype remains a central issue in biology.
Signals sensed by the cell are translated into changes in the rate of transcription of well-defined groups of genes through the activation of specific proteins (transcription factors, TF). TFs have high affinity for specific short sequences located upstream of genes and regulate transcription either positively or negatively. The binding of a TF to its target on the gene's promoter controls when expression occurs, at what level, under what conditions, and in which cells or tissues [662]. Interactions with other proteins, chromatin remodeling, modification complexes and the general transcription machinery affect the DNA-binding characteristics of a TF thereby influencing the rate of transcription
Sars‐cov‐2 pandemic: Not the first, not the last
No full textThe common trait among the betacoronaviruses that emerged during the past two decades (the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus—SARS‐CoV, the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus—MERS‐CoV, and the recent SARS coronavirus 2—SARS‐CoV‐2) is their probable animal origin, all deriving from viruses present in bat species. Bats have arisen the attention of the scientific community as reservoir of emerging viruses, given their wide geographical distribution, their biological diversity (around 1,400 species, 21 different families and over 200 genera), and their peculiar ecological and physiological characteristics which seem to facilitate them in harbouring a high viral diversity. Several human activities may enable the viral spill‐over from bats to humans, such as deforestation, land‐use changes, increased livestock grazing or intensive production of vegetal cultures. In addition, the globalization of trade and high global human mobility allow these viruses to be disseminated in few hours in many parts of the World. In order to avoid the emergence of new pandemic threats in the future we need to substantially change our global models of social and economic development, posing the conservation of biodiversity and the preservation of natural ecosystems as a pillar for the protection of global human health
Author-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.
No full textAuthor-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.</p
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
No full textThe 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
Late assembly domain function can exhibit context dependence and involves ubiquitin residues implicated in endocytosis
No full textRetroviral Gag polyproteins contain regions that promote the separation of virus particles from the plasma membrane and from each other. These Gag regions are often referred to as late assembly (L) domains. The L domain of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) is in the C-terminal p6(gag) domain and harbors an essential P(T/S)APP motif, whereas the L domains of oncoretroviruses are in the N-terminal half of the Gag precursor and have a PPXY core motif. We recently observed that L domains induce the ubiquitination of a minimal HIV-1 Gag construct and that point mutations which abolish L domain activity prevent Gag ubiquitination. In that study, a peptide from the Ebola virus L domain with overlapping P(T/S)APP and PPXY motifs showed exceptional activity in promoting Gag ubiquitination and the release of virus-like particles. We now show that a substitution which disrupts the PPXY motif but leaves the P(T/S)APP motif intact abolishes L domain activity in the minimal Gag context, but not in the context of a near full-length HIV-1 Gag precursor. Our results reveal that the P(T/S)APP motif does not function autonomously and indicate that the HIV-1 nucleocapsid-p1 region, which is proximal to p6(gag), can cooperate with the conserved L domain core motif. We have also examined the effects of ubiquitin mutants on virus-like particle production, and the results indicate that residues required for the endocytosis function of ubiquitin are also involved in virus buddin
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
No full textWe 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
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