1,720,966 research outputs found
100. Ochratoxigenic moulds in the air of a salami ripening room in Pavia Oltrepò
No full textOchratoxin A (OTA) is a mycotoxin synthesized by several Aspergillus and Penicillium species when certain condition of temperature, humidity and pH occur. Mycotoxins are produced and released in cereals and vegetal foodstuffs but also in fermented meat products.
Traditional salami are colonized by fungi present in the air of ripening room, because no fungal starter is usually added. Even if moulds play an important role in the correct ripening of fermented meat, the presence of OTA proved to be nephrotoxic, carcinogenic, teratogenic and immunotoxic (1) has to be monitored.
This work is part of a project funded by Ministry of Health aimed to search for ochratoxin A and ochratoxigenic moulds presence in salami manufactured in Lombardy and Emilia Romagna.
Since in Pavia Oltrepo’ were found Aspergillus westerdijkiae, a strong OTA-producer and the OTA above law’s limits (1μg/kg of meat) (2) in two salami manufactured from the same producer in two different periods of 2014, we have sampled the air and the surfaces of this family-run factory to identify the source of contamination.
Quantitative air sampling was conducted with SAS Super ISO 100 using PDA medium (Potato Dextrose Agar). The air volumes aspirated were 200 and 100 liters in each ripening room and 200 liters in the other environments (the laboratory, the bakery and the outdoor environment). For the qualitative analysis, the same medium was used. For surface sampling five swabs from different points of the ripening rooms and two from salami belonging to different batch produced in 2015 were collected. Fungal loads were evaluated on PDA and DRBC (Dichloran Rose Bengala Cloramphenicol Agar) media after 5 days at 25 °C incubation (3). Moulds identification was performed observing macroscopic and microscopic features as suggested by dichotomic keys for Aspergillus and Penicillium species (4,5).
All fungal loads resulted high and A. westerdijkiae was the predominant species in all rooms, except for the outdoor environment in which it was anyway found.
As regarding the surfaces, A. westerdijkiae was isolated from 4/5 points of the ripening rooms and from both the salami produced in 2015.
This massive contamination of ochratoxigenic strains is very dangerous because it was proved that these strains are able to produce ochratoxin A, 691 μg/kg and 9,4 μg/kg respectively in two salami manufactured in 2014. For this reason is crucial to sanitize all rooms and implement the strategies to prevent this kind of contamination or at least ochratoxin A synthesis
Candidatus Midichloriana mitochondris. An endosymbiont of the tick Ixodes ricinus, with a inique intramitochondrial lifestile
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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
Usutu Virus Antibodies in Blood Donors and Healthy Forestry Workers in the Lombardy Region, Northern Italy
No full textUsutu virus (USUV), a member of the genus Flavivirus, is known to circulate at low prevalence in Northern Italy, and has been reported to cause overt infection. USUV was first reported in Europe in 2001, but a retrospective study showed that it has been present in Italy at least since 1996. Seroprevalence data for USUV antibodies in sera are being collected in different European countries, showing circulation at low prevalence in human populations. Interestingly, two consecutive studies in Northern Italy indicate a possible increase in the presence of the virus, from 0% to 0.23% seroprevalence in blood donors. In this study, antibodies against USUV were measured in 3 consecutive blood samples collected from October 2014 to December 2015 from 33 forestry workers in the Po river valley, while samples from 200 blood donors from the same geographical area were tested in parallel. Neutralizing and IgG antibodies were found in six forestry workers (18.1%) and in two blood donors (1%). Our results indicate that USUV circulation in the examined area, part of a highly populated region in Northern Italy, is higher than expected. Healthy subjects exhibit a higher prevalence than what was found in a previous report in an adjoining region (0.23%), while the population at risk shows a much higher prevalence value (18.1%)
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