1,721,026 research outputs found
Intestinal parasitic infections amongst Orang Asli (indigenous) in Malaysia: Has socioeconomic development alleviated the problem?
No full text. Orang Asli are the indigenous minority peoples of peninsular Malaysia. Despite proactive
socioeconomic development initiated by the Malaysian Government in upgrading the quality of
life of the Orang Asli communities since 1978, they still remained poor with a current poverty rate
of 76.9%. Poverty exacerbates the health problems faced by these communities which include
malnourishment, high incidences of infectious diseases (eg. tuberculosis, leprosy, malaria) and
the perpetual problem with intestinal parasitic infections. Studies reported that the mean infection
rate of intestinal parasitic infections in Orang Asli communities has reduced from 91.1% in 1978,
to 64.1% in the subsequent years. Although the results was encouraging, it has to be interpreted
with caution because nearly 80% of studies carried out after 1978 still reported high prevalence
(i.e. >50%) of soil-transmitted helminthiases (STH) among Orang Asli communities. Prior to 1978,
hookworm infection is the most predominant STH but today, trichuriasis is the most common
STH infections. The risk factors for intestinal parasitic infections remained unchanged and studies
conducted in recent years suggested that severe STH infections contributed to malnutrition, iron
deficiency anaemia and low serum retinol in Orang Asli communities. In addition, STH may also
contribute to poor cognitive functions and learning ability. Improvements in socioeconomic status
in Malaysia have shown positive impact on the reduction of intestinal parasitic infections in other
communities however, this positive impact is less significant in the Orang Asli communities. In
view of this, a national parasitic infections baseline data on morbidity and mortality in the 18
subgroups of Orang Asli, will assist in identifying intervention programmes required by these
communities. It is hope that the adoption of strategies highlighted in the World Health OrganisationHealthy Village Initiatives (WHO-HVI) into Orang Asli communities will ensure the whole
mechanism of delivery and empowerment by the government agencies become more efficient
and productive in alleviating intestinal parasitic infections in these communities
Entamoeba histolytica in Southeast Asia
No full textAmoebae may be free-living or parasitic. Parasitic amoebae belong to many genera. Entamoeba histolytica belongs to the genus Entamoeba, and it is an important human pathogen. E. histolytica is prevalent worldwide. It causes intestinal and extraintestinal amoebiasis. It is much more common in the tropics including Southeast Asia wherever sanitation is poor. Amoebiasis is a major health problem in Southeast Asia. It is the third leading parasitic cause of mortality after malaria and schistosomiasis in the developing countries. Food and water contaminated by human faeces containing E. histolytica cysts are the main sources of infection. The main reservoir of the infection is the human cyst carriers. Transmission is via faecal–oral, mechanical vectors and sexual contact. The life cycle of E. histolytica is completed in a single host, human. Trophozoites can invade all tissues of human including the intestinal mucosa and liver, which is most commonly affected, followed by the lung, skin and brain. The parasite produces virulent factors which are responsible for invasion and destruction of the human tissue. The typical manifestation of intestinal amoebiasis is dysentery. Amoebic liver abscess is the most common extraintestinal complication of amoebiasis. Diagnosis consists of stool examination, serodiagnosis, molecular diagnosis and imaging methods. Treatment consists of the use of amoebicides, and no vaccine is yet available against
amoebiasis in humans. Control and prevention include personal hygiene, proper sanitation, drinking safe water and treatment of cases
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe 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
Get PDF“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
Get PDFWe 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
Get PDFWe 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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