1,721,023 research outputs found
Monocytes-based in vitro assay for a preliminary biocompatibility assessment of blood-contacting devices
Get PDFThe biological evaluation of biomaterials is currently defined by the ISO-10993 norm in which parts four and five are dedicated to emo-compatibility and cell toxicity, respectively. Our study will provide a novel in vitro experimental approach for the biocompatibility assessment of biomaterials or medical devices using human primary monocytes as cellular model. In these new settings, human monocytes are exposed to a medium containing the extractable compounds derived from materials or devices; subsequently, cell toxicity and pro-inflammatory effects are analysed through MTT assay, flow cytometry and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) methodologies. These experimental procedures offer the advantage to use a human and primary cell context belonging to the immune system, in order to accurately predict the nature of blood/device interaction occurring during a clinical application. To validate the reliability of this method, we also reported a comparative study between two different membranes showing a different level of biocompatibility. On the bases of these data, it is possible to state that this new experimental model represents a good approach to investigate the effects induced by a biomaterial on cell death and inflammation using human, primary monocytes
Assessment of microbial parameters as indicators of viral contamination of aerosol from urban sewage treatment plants
No full textIn order to evaluate possible indicators of viral aerosol contamination in sewage treatment plants a year long study was carried out on the relationships of cytopathogenic virus and the counts of total bacteria faecal streptococci and somatic coliphages in samples collected at various distances from the aerosol source (aeration tank)
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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