1,720,997 research outputs found
Influence of in vitro hemolysis on nucleated red blood cells and reticulocyte counts.
No full textINTRODUCTION: Nucleated red blood cells (NRBCs) and reticulocytes are early and important measures of red blood cells' (RBCs) turnover, but little is known on how spurious hemolysis may affect the reliability of these parameters.MATERIALS AND METHODS: Ten EDTA-anticoagulated samples were divided into three aliquots. The first was immediately tested, where;?>as the others (defined A and B) were mechanically hemolyzed by aspiration 5 and 10 times through a small-gauge needle. RBC, NRBC, and reticulocyte counts were performed on Sysmex XE-2100.RESULTS: An increasing amount of hemolysis was produced in hemolyzed aliquots A and B. The RBC and reticulocyte counts progressively decreased from the nonhemolyzed sample to hemolyzed aliquots 'A' and 'B'. The NRBC count increased in 3 of the 10 samples and decreased in the remaining seven.CONCLUSIONS: Hemolysis of venous blood samples may seriously jeopardize NRBC and reticulocyte counts
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
Evaluation of the Fully Automated Hematological Analyzer Sysmex XE-5000 for Flow Cytometric Analysis of Peritoneal Fluid.
No full textAlthough microscopy still represents the gold standard for cytometric analysis of peritoneal fluids, automated flow cytometry may improve throughput and accuracy. We evaluated the performance of total nucleated cell (TNC), white blood cell (WBC), polymorphonuclear cell (PMN), and mononuclear cell (MONO) counts of Sysmex XE-5000 on peritoneal fluids. The imprecision was excellent, being always lower than 11%, whereas linearity studies yielded correlation coefficients of 1.00 for all parameters. The carryover was always lower than 0.2%. The comparison between XE-5000 and microscopic analysis of 117 ascitic fluids yielded correlation coefficients always greater than 0.96, with mean biases <11/μL. The diagnostic accuracy versus manual microscopy was greater than that of XE-2100, especially at thresholds for septic ascites (100 versus 98% for ≥500 WBC/μL; 98 versus 93% for ≥250 PMN/μL). The correlation with manual microscopy for macrophages and mesothelial cell count was also higher for XE-5000 than for XE-2100 (0.63 versus 0.55). The results of this evaluation show optimal performance of XE-5000 for routine analysis of ascitic fluids, which are combined with the advantages of automated analysis such as high throughout, shortened turnaround time, no need of sample preparation and trained staff, reduced sample volume, and less likelihood of transcriptional errors
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
Relationship between Vitamin D and Immunity in Older People with COVID-19
No full textVitamin D is a group of lipophilic hormones with pleiotropic actions. It has been traditionally related to bone metabolism, although several studies in the last decade have suggested its role in sarcopenia, cardiovascular and neurological diseases, insulin-resistance and diabetes, malignancies, and autoimmune diseases and infections. In the pandemic era, by considering the response of the different branches of the immune system to SARS-CoV-2 infection, our aims are both to analyse, among the pleiotropic effects of vitamin D, how its strong multimodal modulatory effect on the immune system is able to affect the pathophysiology of COVID-19 disease and to emphasise a possible relationship between the well-known circannual fluctuations in blood levels of this hormone and the epidemiological trend of this infection, particularly in the elderly population. The biologically active form of vitamin D, or calcitriol, can influence both the innate and the adaptive arm of the immune response. Calcifediol levels have been found to be inversely correlated with upper respiratory tract infections in several studies, and this activity seems to be related to its role in the innate immunity. Cathelicidin is one of the main underlying mechanisms since this peptide increases the phagocytic and germicidal activity acting as chemoattractant for neutrophils and monocytes, and representing the first barrier in the respiratory epithelium to pathogenic invasion. Furthermore, vitamin D exerts a predominantly inhibitory action on the adaptive immune response, and it influences either cell-mediated or humoral immunity through suppression of B cells proliferation, immunoglobulins production or plasma cells differentiation. This role is played by promoting the shift from a type 1 to a type 2 immune response. In particular, the suppression of Th1 response is due to the inhibition of T cells proliferation, pro-inflammatory cytokines production (e.g., INF-γ, TNF-α, IL-2, IL-17) and macrophage activation. Finally, T cells also play a fundamental role in viral infectious diseases. CD4 T cells provide support to B cells antibodies production and coordinate the activity of the other immunological cells; moreover, CD8 T lymphocytes remove infected cells and reduce viral load. For all these reasons, calcifediol could have a protective role in the lung damage produced by COVID-19 by both modulating the sensitivity of tissue to angiotensin II and promoting overexpression of ACE-2. Promising results for the potential effectiveness of vitamin D supplementation in reducing the severity of COVID-19 disease was demonstrated in a pilot clinical trial of 76 hospitalised patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection where oral calcifediol administration reduced the need for ICU treatment. These interesting results need to be confirmed in larger studies with available information on vitamin D serum levels
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
Preliminary evaluation of complete blood cell count on Mindray BC-6800.
No full textPreliminary evaluation of complete blood cell count on Mindray BC-6800
Evaluation of white blood cell count in peritoneal fluid with five different hemocytometers.
No full textOBJECTIVES: Evaluation of automated flow cytometric analysis of white blood cell (WBC) count in peritoneal fluids.METHODS: One hundred peritoneal fluids were analyzed with manual microscopy, Sysmex XE-2100 and XE-5000, Siemens Advia 2120, Mindray BC-6800, Abbott Sapphire.RESULTS: High correlations (0.978 to 0.999) and modes biases (-132 to 80 WBC/mm(3)) were found. Agreement at septic peritonitis cutoff ranged between 96% and 99%.CONCLUSIONS: These hemocytometers display acceptable performance for WBC screening in peritoneal fluids
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
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