1,720,955 research outputs found
Effects of sound stimuli on the phenotypic and genotypic characteristics of Staphylococcus aureus / Isma Syahril Ismail
Full text linkWhen listening to music, the ear is the closest organ to be exposed to sound. The external auditory canal of the ear is colonised by normal flora such as Staphylococcus aureus, which is inevitably exposed to sound waves. In an immunocompromised patient, a change in the equilibrium of the microflora would be detrimental. This study aims to determine whether S. aureus undergoes any phenotypic or genotypic changes after exposure to various types of sounds. S. aureus was exposed to sounds produced from two musical instruments i.e. acoustic and electrical; and solo vocalisation. A non-exposed group was included as a control. The bacteria in liquid medium were exposed to the sounds while incubating at 37°C. After nine hours of exposure to the various types of sound, the bacteria were evaluated for any changes in phenotypic and genotypic characteristics. Results showed that there was no change in the growth pattern of the bacteria although the growth rate was enhanced in all the exposed groups. However, there was no change in their morphology, biochemical properties and susceptibility to three antibiotics. The biofilm production of the bacteria increased following the exposure to all types of sound. Protein profile of the acoustic and electrical instrument groups showed a deletion of a 30 to 32 kDa protein but the nucleotide sequences of seven housekeeping genes of the bacteria were not altered. In conclusion, exposure of S. aureus to audible sounds produced by acoustic and electrical instruments, as well as solo vocalisation resulted in some changes in their biological characteristics
Antimicrobial properties of different fractions of Swertia Chirata / Nik Aiman Afiq Nik Ab Rahman, Isma Syahril Ismail and Lwin Lwin Nyein
No full textComplementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is becoming increasingly popular and experienced a high growth all over the world. A medicinal plant, Swertia chirata, has been widely use as herbal medicine in Asian countries and some parts of the world. The aim of this study was to evaluate the antibacterial properties of Swertia chirata and to assess the cytotoxicity using brine shrimp lethality test. Plants were extracted using ethanol. Disc diffusion technique was used to determine antimicrobial activity. Crude extraction of the whole plant showed significant antimicrobial activities against some clinical bacterial isolates. Plant extracts at a concentration of 100 μg disc-1 were used to evaluate the antimicrobial activity and 30 μg disc-1 concentration of Chloramphenicol was used as a positive control. Zone of inhibition against Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus, Escherichia coli and Salmonella arizonae were 10 mm, 6 mm, 9 mm and 7 mm respectively. Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) of the crude extract was determined by serial dilution technique which showed 128 μg/ml, 64 μg/ml, 128 μg/ml and 128 μg/ml respectively. Plant showed no significant cytotoxitcity with LC50 >5000 μg.The results obtained revealed inhibition against some gram positive and gram negative bacteria and low cytotoxicity value indicates its effective use as traditional medicine plant. Thus, Swertia chirata which possesses antimicrobial activity, with low cytotoxicity, will be of use in complementing a standard antimicrobial drug and will contribute to the current status of the public health where emergence of drug resistance is a major problem
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
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