1,720,966 research outputs found
Safety and immunogenicity of a genetically engineered human immunodeficiency virus vaccine
No full textA phase 1 trial of a candidate human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) vaccine was done in 25 healthy seronegative subjects. The antigen, env2-3 (SF2), was a nonglycosylated polypeptide representing the gp120 region of the env gene of the HIV-1(SF2) isolate. It was produced in genetically engineered yeast as a denatured molecule incapable of binding CD4. A synthetic lipophilic muramyl tripeptide (MTP-PE) was used as an adjuvant. Ten subjects received adjuvant alone and 15 received 50- or 250-micrograms doses of env2-3 (SF2) administered intramuscularly in two immunization regimens. In general, adjuvant and vaccine were well tolerated. Antibody responses to both the homologous antigen, env2-3 (SF2), and antigens from other highly divergent HIV isolates were elicited in the majority of vaccine recipients. However, antibody titers were low, without neutralizing activity. In 9 of 11 subjects who received the complete vaccine immunization series, a significant specific T lymphocyte response was observed
Field evaluation of a rapid immunochromatographic dipstick test for the diagnosis of cholera in a high-risk population.
Get PDFBACKGROUND: Early detection of cholera outbreaks is crucial for the implementation of the most appropriate control strategies. METHODS: The performance of an immunochromatographic dipstick test (Institute Pasteur, Paris, France) specific for Vibrio cholerae O1 was evaluated in a prospective study in Beira, Mozambique, during the 2004 cholera season (January-May). Fecal specimens were collected from 391 patients with acute watery nonbloody diarrhea and tested by dipstick and conventional culture. RESULTS: The overall sensitivity and specificity of the rapid test compared to culture were 95% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 91%-99%) and 89% (95% CI: 86%-93%), respectively. After stratification by type of sample (rectal swab/bulk stool) and severity of diarrhea, the sensitivity ranged between 85% and 98% and specificity between 77% and 97%. CONCLUSION: This one-step dipstick test performed well in the diagnosis of V. cholerae O1 in a setting with seasonal outbreaks where rapid tests are most urgently needed
Oral cholera vaccine use in Zanzibar: socioeconomic and behavioural features affecting demand and acceptance
Get PDFBACKGROUND: Cholera remains a serious public health problem in low-income countries despite efforts in the past to promote oral rehydration therapy as major treatment. In 2007, the majority of worldwide cases (94%) and deaths (99%) were reported from Africa. To improve cholera control efforts in addition to maintaining and improving existing water supply, sanitation and hygiene behaviour measures, the World Health Organization has recently started to consider the use of vaccines as an additional public health tool. To assess this new approach in endemic settings, a project was launched in Zanzibar to vaccinate 50,000 individuals living in communities at high risk of cholera with an oral two-dose vaccine (Dukoral). Immunisation programmes in low-income countries have suffered a reduced coverage or were even brought to a halt because of an ignorance of local realities. To ensure the success of vaccination campaigns, implementers have to consider community-held perceptions and behaviours regarding the infectious disease and the vaccine of interest. The main aim of this study is to provide advice to the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare of Zanzibar regarding routine introduction of an oral cholera vaccine from a socioeconomic and behavioural perspective as part of a long-term development for a sustained cholera prevention strategy. METHODS AND DESIGN: Qualitative and quantitative methods of health social science research will be applied on four stakeholder levels before and after the mass vaccination campaign. Rapid assessment individual interviews and focus groups will be used to describe cholera- and vaccine-related views of policy makers, health care professionals and community representatives. The cultural epidemiological approach will be employed on the individual household resident level in a repeated cross-sectional design to estimate determinants of anticipated and actual oral cholera vaccine acceptance. DISCUSSION: The study presented here is designed to inform about people's perceptions regarding cholera and about socioeconomic and behavioural factors determining anticipated and actual oral cholera vaccine acceptance in Zanzibar. Its pre- and post-intervention design using a mixed-methods approach on different stakeholder levels in communities at high risk of cholera outbreaks will ensure the collection of locally valid data relevant for public health action and plannin
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
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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