1,720,975 research outputs found
Detection of fungal contamination: surface sampling with a dusting cloth improves quantitative recovery of aspergilli.
No full textBackground. The health-care facility environment can be implicated in disease transmission in immunocompromised patients. Exposure of such patients to moulds can result in fatal infections. Incidence of hospital -acquired aspergillosis can be minimized by adherence to ventilation standards for specialized care environments, appropriate maintenance and careful cleaning of patient environment. Mycological control is also recommended in protective environments or operating rooms mainly during building renovation, by air sampling but also surface sampling, an efficient method to detect minor fungal contamination.
Objective. To make surface sampling easier and to reduce surveillance costs, we developed a simple technique using sterile dusting paper cloths. To validate this method, we used an experimental protocol to evaluate ability of the system to capture fungal conidia, in comparison with two other methods, Rodac Contact plates and cotton pads.
Materials/method. Aspergillus niger was chosen as organism test. A reference suspension of conidia (0.5 McFarland) was prepared with serial dilutions (1/30, 1/40, 1/50, 1/100) to contaminate sterile stainless steel plates (n=18), each 30 by 30 cm. Each one was divided into 16 smaller squares: 0.5 ml of the suspension was placed in the centre of each square and allowed to dry. Thus, 288 square surfaces were contaminated. From 96 of these, Rodac plates were used to harvest the spores; from another 96 the cotton pads were used, and from the last 96 the dusting cloths were used and inseminated in Petri plates. The remaining stainless steel plates were used to repeat the experiment (dilutions 1/40 and 1/50) with agar neutralised with lecithin and polysorbate 80. All the plates were incubated at 37°C for 18 h. For the statistical analyses, the data were transformed using the natural logarithm. Multiple log-linear regression was used to estimate the differences between the 3 methods, between the 4 dilutions, and the effect of neutralisation.
Results. The mean number of colonies was approximately the same for each method at dilution 1/100. At dilutions 1/50, 1/40 and 1/30 the mean number of colonies is much higher for the cotton pads and dusting cloths than for Rodac. The multiple regression showed that neutralization reduces the number of colonies by 12% (not significant P=0.07). In comparison with dilution 1/50, the number of colonies recovered at dilutions 1/40 and 1/30 were slightly increased, by 13% and 6% respectively (not significant P=0.09 and P=0.52). However, in comparison with Rodac plates, both cotton pads and dusting cloths identified many more of colonies, 5 times as many and 6 times as many respectively (highly significant P<0.00005).
Conclusions. This method using dusting cloths for surface sampling is able to take samples on every type of surface (smooth, mesh, flat, curved) and to have all information about contamination taking only one sample from the area (air ventilation outlets, filters, patient’s bed, scialitic lamp..). We showed that this device improves quantitative recovery of A. niger from stainless steel surfaces. Although these results are preliminary, we think that this sampling method could contribute an easy, sensitive and inexpensive approach to environmental control
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
Author-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.
No full textAuthor-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.</p
Author Under Sail The Imagination of Jack London, 1893-1902
No full textIn Author Under Sail, Jay Williams offers the first complete literary biography of Jack London as a professional writer engaged in the labor of writing. It examines the authorial imagination in London's work, the use of imagination in both his fiction and nonfiction, and the ways he defined imagination in the creative process in his business dealings with his publishers, editors, and agents. In this first volume of a two-volume biography, Williams traverses the years 1893 to 1902, from London's "Story of a Typhoon" to The People of the Abyss. The Jack London who emerges in the pages of Author Under Sail is a writer whose partnership with publishers, most notably his productive alliance with George Brett of Macmillan, was one of the most formative in American literary history. London pioneered many author models during the heyday of realism and naturalism, blurring the boundaries of these popular genres by focusing on absorption and theatricality and the representation of the seen and unseen. London created an impassioned, sincere, and extremely personal realism unlike that of other American writers of the time. Author Under Sail is a literary tour de force that reveals the full range of London as writer, creative citizen, and entrepreneur at the same time it sheds light on the maverick side of machine-age literature.Intro -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. Spirit Truth -- 2. From Absorption to Theatricality and Back Again -- 3. "I Will Build a New Present" -- 4. Sons as Authors -- 5. Fathers as Publishers -- 6. The Daughter as Author -- 7. Lovers as Authors -- 8. At Sea with the Family -- 9. Yellow News, Yellow Stories -- 10. The Return Home -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- About Jay WilliamsIn Author Under Sail, Jay Williams offers the first complete literary biography of Jack London as a professional writer engaged in the labor of writing. It examines the authorial imagination in London's work, the use of imagination in both his fiction and nonfiction, and the ways he defined imagination in the creative process in his business dealings with his publishers, editors, and agents. In this first volume of a two-volume biography, Williams traverses the years 1893 to 1902, from London's "Story of a Typhoon" to The People of the Abyss. The Jack London who emerges in the pages of Author Under Sail is a writer whose partnership with publishers, most notably his productive alliance with George Brett of Macmillan, was one of the most formative in American literary history. London pioneered many author models during the heyday of realism and naturalism, blurring the boundaries of these popular genres by focusing on absorption and theatricality and the representation of the seen and unseen. London created an impassioned, sincere, and extremely personal realism unlike that of other American writers of the time. Author Under Sail is a literary tour de force that reveals the full range of London as writer, creative citizen, and entrepreneur at the same time it sheds light on the maverick side of machine-age literature.Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, YYYY. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries
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