1,721,038 research outputs found
Epidemiology of jellyfish stings reported to summer health centres in the Salento peninsula (Italy)
No full textBackground: The presence of jellyfish along coasts constitutes a potentially serious public health problem because of the toxic effects of contact with them. Objective To determine the epidemiology of jellyfish stings in the Province of Lecce, Italy, in 2007. Methods: The study involved the gathering and processing of data on patients seeking medical treatment at summer first aid centres and hospitals along the coast of Salento following contact with jellyfish. Results: In 2007, 446 bathers sought medical assistance following contact with jellyfish. The spatial distribution indicates a greater frequency of stings sustained along the Adriatic coast, while the time analysis shows patterns related to wind direction. Most of the injuries were seen in persons aged between 1 and 10 years and in females. In 24% of cases, injuries were sustained to several parts of the body, while single injuries were mainly to the lower limbs (33%). In 4.9% of cases, there were complications, including one case of anaphylactic shock. Conclusion In the light of the significant level of medical assistance provided, there is a need to identify suitable strategies that will guarantee the best response in terms of both prevention and treatment. © 2009 John Wiley & Sons A/S
Rotavirus detection in environmental water samples by tangential flow ultrafiltration and RT-nested PCR
No full textEnvironmental monitoring was conducted in Otranto (Italy), from January 2006 to April 2007, to monitor the circulation of rotaviruses in various water matrices (raw and treated sewage, surface waters and seawater) and to identify any correlation with the traditional bacteriological indices (faecal coliforms). The viruses were detected using tangential flow ultrafiltration and reverse transcriptase-nested polymerase chain reaction, whilst detection of feaecal coliform was performed according to standard methods. The results showed widespread viral contamination, particularly in spring, of the matrices tested, with the exception of seawater, which at all times tested negative for the presence of rotaviruses. The typing of the rotavirus strains identified the circulation in the studied area of only two genotypes: G1 (22%) and G2 (78%). The bacterial recoveries confirmed the presence of faecal pollution indicators in all examined samples, sometimes with high values. A very weak correlation was found between the presence of faecal coliforms and the circulation of rotaviruses in the environment. The presence of rotaviruses in the environmental water samples may constitute a potential health risk for the local population. © 2009 Springer Science+Business Media B.V
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
The water safety plan approach: Application to small drinking-water systems—case studies in salento (south italy)
Full text linkBackground: The quality of water for human consumption is an objective of fundamental importance for the defense of public health. Since the management of networks involves many problems of control and efficiency of distribution, the Water Safety Plan (WSP) was introduced to address these growing problems. Methods: WSP was applied to three companies in which the water resource assumes central importance: five water kiosks, a third-range vegetable processing company, and a residence and care institution. In drafting the plan, the terms and procedures designed and tested for the management of urban distribution systems were applied to safeguard the resource over time. Results: The case studies demonstrated the reliability of the application of the model even to small drinking-water systems, even though it involved a greater effort in analyzing the incoming water, the local intended use, and the possibilities for managing the containment of the dangers to which it is exposed. This approach demonstrates concrete effectiveness in identifying and mitigating the dangers of altering the quality of water. Conclusions: Thanks to the WSP applied to small drinking-water systems, we can move from management that is focused mainly on verifying the conformity of the finished product to the creation of a global risk assessment and management system that covers the entire water supply chain
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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