1,720,969 research outputs found
Tungiasis in Northern Tanzania : a clinical report from Qameyu village, Babati District, Manyara Region
Full text linkINTRODUCTION:
Tungiasis is an infestation caused by the penetration in the skin of the gravid female of the flea Tunga penetrans (T. penetrans). The current epidemiological situation of tungiasis in Eastern Africa is poorly known. We present the results of a cross-sectional study on tungiasis which was carried out in Qameyu (Northern Tanzania).
METHODOLOGY:
Sixty-two schoolchildren with suspected cases of tungiasis were examined. Location, number, morphology and symptoms associated with T. penetrans infestation were recorded for each patient.
RESULTS:
A total of 62 schoolchildren (38 males and 24 females), with ages ranging from 6 to 14 years, were examined. Sixty children were infested by T. penetrans. A total of 865 lesions were observed: 170 lesions were vital and 695 were non-vital. The first and the fifth toes were especially involved. The highest number of lesions observed in a single patient was more than 55 lesions. Pain was reported by 42 children, itching by 39 and difficult walking by 28. One child presented with fever which was considered to be caused by superinfected tungiasis. Complications were nail dystrophy (48 patients), deformity of the fingers or toes (12 patients), scarring (4 patients) and nail loss (4 patients). Thirteen children needed oral antibiotic therapy because of bacterial superinfections.
CONCLUSIONS:
Tungiasis is a public health concern in this region of Tanzania and it is associated with high morbidity. Improvement in housing hygiene, confining domestic animals and increasing the knowledge of the disease via health education are measures that should be taken to control the disease
Prothrombotic state and impaired fibrinolysis in bullous pemphigoid, the most frequent autoimmune blistering disease
No full textBullous pemphigoid (BP) is a potentially life-threatening autoimmune blistering disease that is burdened with an increased risk of cardiovascular events. In BP, there is an interplay between inflammation and coagulation both locally, which contributes to skin damage, and systemically, which leads to a prothrombotic state. Fibrinolysis is an important defence mechanism against thrombosis, but has only been studied locally in BP and no systemic data are available. The aim of this observational study was to evaluate systemic fibrinolysis and coagulation activation in patients with BP. We measured parameters of fibrinolysis and coagulation by immunoenzymatic methods in plasma from 20 patients with BP in an active phase and during remission after corticosteroid treatment. The controls were 20 age- and sex-matched healthy subjects. Plasma levels of plasminogen activator inhibitor type 1 (PAI-1) antigen, PAI-1 activity and tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA) antigen were significantly higher in the BP patients with active disease than in healthy controls (P=0·0001 for all), as were the plasma levels of the fibrin fragment d-dimer and prothrombin fragment F1+2 (P=0·0001 for both). During remission after treatment, levels of PAI-1 antigen and PAI-1 activity decreased significantly (P=0·008 and P=0·006, respectively), and there was also a significant decrease in plasma levels of d-dimer (P=0·0001) and F1+2 (P=0·0001). Fibrinolysis is inhibited in patients with active BP, due mainly to an increase in plasma levels of PAI-1. Corticosteroids not only induce the regression of BP lesions, but also reduce the inhibition of fibrinolysis, which may contribute to decreasing thrombotic risk. © 2012 British Society for Immunology
Acral subcutaneous steatocystoma multiplex : a distinct subtype of the disease?
No full textSteatocystoma multiplex (SM) is a hamartomatous malformation of the pilosebaceous duct consisting of dermal cysts filled with a sebum-like material. SM lesions are typically located in areas with sebaceous follicles, although atypical presentations involving sites lacking sebaceous follicles have exceptionally been described. We reviewed retrospectively a series of 32 histologically diagnosed SM observed in our department in the period 2006-2010, evaluating the kinds of lesions and their locations, and family history of SM and associated disorders, to focus on the clinical features of the acral subcutaneous variety of SM and to estimate its prevalence. We found five patients (four women and one man) with asymptomatic deep, skin-colored nodules on the flexor surfaces of distal upper extremities with a mean age at diagnosis and at disease onset of 32.5 and 26 years, respectively. The prevalence was 15%. All five cases were sporadic. The male patient had eruptive syringomas as an associated condition, together with a family history of this tumour. Acral subcutaneous SM may represent a distinct disease variety by virtue of its distinctive clinical features. Dermatologists should be aware of this form, which has to be included in the wide panel of diseases involving subcutaneous tissue
Interactions between Inflammation and Coagulation in Autoimmune and Immune-Mediated Skin Diseases
No full textInflammation and coagulation systems are simultaneously activated in autoimmune and immune-mediated skin disorders, and the cross-talk that amplifies and maintains their activation seems to have both local and systemic implications. This interplay occurs in bullous pemphigoid (BP), the prototype autoimmune blistering disease in which eosinophil recruitment and thrombin generation locally contribute to the formation of bullae and inflammatory tissue damage. Moreover, the systemic activation of coagulation may explain the increased thrombotic risk observed in BP patients. Atopic dermatitis (AD), a chronically relapsing immune-mediated inflammatory skin disease, also involves the local and systemic activation of coagulation, which means that a prothrombotic state could theoretically develop, although the incidence of thrombosis is not increased in AD patients probably because of their young age. In psoriasis, a erythematous-squamous inflammatory immune-mediated skin disorder, the activation of coagulation seems to be mainly systemic and related to systemic inflammation, thus potentially contributing to the disease-related increase in cardiovascular risk in this disease. The activation of coagulation has also been suggested an additional pathomechanism in dermatitis herpetiformis (DH), a chronic-relapsing autoimmune skin disease associated with gluten sensitivity and celiac disease, but its precise role has not yet been defined. Taken together, these data provide the rationale for controlled clinical trials aimed at evaluating the usefulness of anticoagulant treatment in autoimmune skin disorders to counteract the local and systemic effects of coagulation activatio
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
L’educazione sessuale quale prerequisito per la prevenzione dell’abuso sessuale all’infanzia : confronto tra le linee guida europee e statunitensi
No full textEsiste un’ampia eterogeneità per quanto concerne i programmi di educazione sessuale anche in Italia. Non esistono dati certi e ufficiali sull’educazione sessuale nelle scuole. Nel presente lavoro abbiamo condotto un’analisi comparativa delle linee guida disponibili a livello europeo e statunitense. Globalmente, si riscontra una differenza fondamentale nell’approccio all’educazione sessuale nelle linee guida europee, che la intendono come apprendimento graduale ed omnicomprensivo che permea tutte le età della vita e gli aspetti cognitivi e relazionali. Viceversa a livello statunitense emerge la necessità di colmare le lacune del sistema scolastico attuale in tema di educazione sessuale, cui viene riservato un ruolo marginale nei programmi curricolari.
Entrambi gli approcci sono funzione del contesto socio-culturale da cui scaturiscono: ad esempio, negli Stati Uniti è più pressante l’esigenza di affrontare problematiche quali il bullismo, le gravidanze in età adolescenziale e la trasmissione di MTS. A livello europeo invece la sessualità, e quindi l’educazione sessuale, viene considerata una componente centrale dello sviluppo dell’essere umano ed una condizione essenziale per il raggiungimento del benessere psico-fisico dell’individuo. Preminente è inoltre il diritto a essere informati in tal senso, che si inserisce tra gli otto Obiettivi di Sviluppo del Millennio individuati dalla World Association for Sexual health (WAS).
Anche nel nostro Paese è necessario avviare percorsi strutturati di educazione alla sessualità conoscenza del proprio corpo con la doppia ottica della consapevolezza e del rispetto delle differenze, poiché essi sono strumenti fondamentali per la prevenzione dell’abuso sessuale all’infanzia.There is a wide heterogeneity concerning sexuality education programs in Italian schools. Data are lacking. We performed a comparative analysis of the European and US standards for sexuality education. Globally, there is a different approach in the European guidelines, considering sexuality education as a gradual learning and comprehensive process throughout lifetime. In contrast US standards underline the need to fill gaps in the current national education system. Both approaches are a function of the socio-cultural context from which arise. In our country it is important to define structured pathways of sexuality education based on knowledge of own bodies with the dual perspective of awareness and respect for differences, as they are key tools for the prevention of child sexual abuse
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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