1,720,966 research outputs found
The serodiagnosis of parasitic infections
No full textAbstract [The serodiagnosis of parasitic infections]. Recently, the term of clinical immunoparasitology has
been coined to indicate the application of immunological methods to the laboratory diagnosis of parasitic
infections. In particular, serological diagnosis (indirect diagnosis) is useful especially in the cases of toxocarosis,
trichinellosis, echinococcosis, cysticercosis, toxoplasmosis, amoebic abscess, some filariasis, visceral
leishmaniasis, schistosomiasis. When possible, for infections caused by protozoa or helminths, the
“gold standard” is represented by direct diagnosis performed by microscopic and/or macroscopic observation
of the parasite. In any case, immunological results must be interpreted in consideration of the clinical
picture of the patient and confirmed possibly by finding the parasite or its genome, even using molecular
methods. Furthermore, since the presence of specific antibodies can reveal an acquired infection, but
not necessarily a disease, it is particularly helpful, in addition to a qualitative evaluation, a quantitative one,
by determining the serum antibody titre. After recovery, the antibody levels decrease, however, they may
persist for long periods, for this reason they do not help in evaluating the treatment outcome. Interpretation
of serological results may be difficult when the patients originate from areas where the suspected infection
is endemic, in that case, a serum positivity could reflect ad old exposition to the parasite, therefore it is not
related to the present clinical status. Furthermore, serology may frequently result falsely negative in not
immunocompetent subjects (organ transplanted, HIV positive individuals, premature babies, diabetics).
Clinicians can interpret correctly the serological results only if the Parasitology laboratory inform them about
the significant diagnostic values, the sensitivity and the specificity of the test in use. At present time, many
diagnostic kits for immunoparasitology are commercially available, and industries are developing newer
and newer ones (which are not always validated). In relation to this aspect, it should be helpful, for each of
parasitic infection, to establish reference centers, not only to control the quality of commercial kits, but also
as a reference point to those laboratories which use “in house” kits. To this regard, the recent establishment
of a European Centre for Control of Infectious Diseases will help. The antigen characteristics (crude, E/S,
recombinant, synthetic) for assays searching for antibodies (IHA, IFA, EIA, WB) of different classes, the controls
to choose for these assays, the specimen requirements will be discussed. The recent findings on the
serological diagnosis of intestinal protozoa infections, malaria, leishmaniasis, echinococcosis, cysticercosis,
trichinellosis, toxocariasis, schistosomiasis, strongyloidiasis will be presented
DALLA FASE D'ATTESA AI PRIMI MESI DI VITA DEL BAMBINO: PRESENTAZIONE DI UN MODELLO D'INDAGINE LONGITUDINALE PER ESPLORARE LE RAPPRESENTAZIONI MENTALI MATERNE E PATERNE E LE PROBLEMATICHE CONNESSE ALLA GENITORIALITA'
No full textRe-evaluation of patients involved in a trichinellosis outbreak caused by Trichinella britovi 15 years after infection
No full textThis study re-evaluates 13 out of 48 subjects involved in a trichinellosis outbreak that occurred in Central Italy (Umbria Region) in 1988 resulting from the consumption of raw boar meat harboring Trichinella britovi. During the outbreak, 28 of 48 serologically positive subjects were asymptomatic, whereas 20 subjects presented one or more clinical signs including but not limited to fever, myalgia, periorbital oedema and conjunctivitis. Several patients were hospitalized with severe clinical signs requiring treatment with mebendazole and corticosteroids. Upon re-evaluation of 13 patients, none presented clinical signs; however, three still had increased CPK or LDH serum levels with some signs of electromyographic changes. In this study, enzyme immunoassays (EIA) were used to test the 13 positive sera for reactivity with T britovi antigens using both excretory/ secretory (E/S) antigens and a synthetic antigen composed of P-tyvelose conjugated to bovine serum albumin. Western blots (WB) were also carried out using a commercial kit. Studies using EIA with E/S antigen identified five positive sera; however, using beta-tyvelose as antigen, only one positive sample was identified. Nearly all sera reacted positively with one or more Trichinella antigens when analyzed by WB, in particular to the 45 kDa beta-tyvelose containing glycoprotein. Results indicate that T britovi, though less pathogenic than other Trichinella species, is clearly capable of inducing sustainable sequelae
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
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
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