1,721,525 research outputs found
Survey of Italian veterinary practioners on D. immitis and D. repens
No full textDirofilarial infections (D. immitis, D. repens) are vector-borne parasitic diseases mainly of dogs and cats. Moreover, they are zoonotic and endemic areas of both are expanding. The experience of veterinarians is very important for correct prevention and diagnosis. To evaluate this, an electronic questionnaire was sent to all Italian veterinary facilities. In the first months of 2018 a questionnaire was sent by e-mail to 2795 veterinary facilities (surgeries, clinics, hospitals and public facilities). The 31 questions were mainly about in which province the facilities were located, and about diagnosis, prevention and treatment for D. immitis and D. repens in dogs and cats. In addition, it was asked if they knew the Dirofilariosis societies and if they had attended lectures and/or congresses on the topic. Among 662 responses (27%), 33.7% facilities reported infections only of D. immitis, 3.2% only of D. repens, 10.7% mix infections and 52.4% no cases of either parasite in the last year. Dirofilaria
immitis infections were observed above all in the northern and central Italy. However, also many regions of the south and the islands (Sicily and Sardinia) reported heartworm infections. Dirofilaria repens is fairly evenly distributed throughout Italy mainly in co-infections with D. immitis. The most frequent diagnostic method used in dogs was the antigen test, 24.0%, followed by the fresh blood smear together with the antigen test 23.3%, aid of a diagnostic laboratory 8.3%, and Knott test together with the antigen test 4.7%. For D.
repens in dogs results were: diagnostic laboratory 33.8%, skin biopsy 10.8% and fresh blood smear 9.8%. The most frequently diagnostic technique for D. immitis in cats was: diagnostic laboratory 27.3%, serological test 26.9% and fresh blood smear 8.2%. For treatment of canine heartworm infection, more then 25% used ivermectin + doxycycline or melarsomin and ivermectin + doxycycline 11%; while more than 50% did not do any treatment in the cat. Prevention was started in the dog in April-May, 54.8%, while 10.3% treated for all year. Finally, more than 70% knew the American Heartworm Society (AHS),
while 69% knew the European Society of Dirofilariosis and Angiostrongylosis
(ESDA). Our data show how D. immitis and D. repens are distributed in most of the Italian provinces. Furthermore, the diagnosis is often underestimated and mainly relegated just to serology. This type of research can be a good starting point for scientific societies and to get updated risk maps
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
The prevalence of Dirofilaria immitis and D. repens in the Old World
No full textDirofilaria immitis and D. repens are endemic throughout Europe and southern eastern regions of Asia and reported with increasing frequency in Africa. Nevertheless, the increased awareness of veterinary practitioners, even in countries where the prevalence is low, has led to a decrease D. immitis prevalence in dogs, especially in previously endemic/hyper-endemic areas. Prevalence has significantly increased, however, in areas where heartworm has apparently spread more recently, such as Central and North Eastern Europe. Furthermore, autochthonous cases have been observed in Siberia. Low seroprevalence has been reported in Croatia, while in Romania it has reached 14%. In Greece, the prevalence ranges between 0.7% and 25% whilst in Turkey is 0-18%. Data for canine dirofilariosis in Africa is scarce, and most are case reports. Overall, the dominant species is Achanthocheilonema dracunculoides, although both D. immitis and D. repens have been reported from some countries. In the Far East, the prevalence ranges from 2% to 15% in northeastern of China. In Hong Kong a novel species has been found in dogs and humans (Candidatus Dirofilaria hongkongensis). In India, the prevalence ranges from 4.7%-29.5% in Northeastern states. The main factors that have influenced the spreading of Dirofilaria infections are the climate changes and the introduction of new, invasive, competent mosquito species such as Aedes albopictus and Ae. koreicus. Other factors include relocation and insufficient prevention in dogs, manly in the new areas of colonization. Feline heartworm infection has been diagnosed in every European country when diagnosed either by the Knott test or by serology for circulating antibodies and antigens of the parasite. However, prevalence is much lower than in dogs. In spite of the continuing spreading of heartworm infection, D. repens is the main concern in Europe, mostly for physicians, while the infection is nearly always asymptomatic in dogs. The infection is spreading from Portugal to the Southeastern regions of Finland and Siberia, and in some areas its prevalence overlaps that of D. immitis. Many reasons make more difficult the control of D. repens than D. immitis: the frequent lack of clinical symptoms of suspicion, the specific diagnosis being possible only by blood examination and the inefficacy of some macrocyclic lactones
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
Marcusenius elegans: a replacement name for Marcusenius gracilis Kramer 2013 (Osteoglossiformes: Mormyridae), a secondary junior homonym of Marcusenius senegalensis gracilis (Pellegrin 1922)
No full textFricke, Ronald, Kramer, L. Bernd (2022): Marcusenius elegans: a replacement name for Marcusenius gracilis Kramer 2013 (Osteoglossiformes: Mormyridae), a secondary junior homonym of Marcusenius senegalensis gracilis (Pellegrin 1922). Zootaxa 5175 (4): 499-500, DOI: https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5175.4.
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