1,720,963 research outputs found
Screening of at-risk blood donors for Chagas disease in non-endemic countries: Lessons from a 2-year experience in Tuscany, Italy
Full text linkBackground: Chagas disease (CD) is caused by the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi and is transmitted by blood-sucking triatomine insects in endemic areas of Latin America. Transmission can also occur via blood transfusion and is a major cause of CD in non-endemic areas. Objectives: The aim of the study was to assess the prevalence of anti-T. cruzi antibodies in blood donors at risk of infection in Tuscany, Italy, following the introduction of blood safety Italian legislation. Material and methods: Donors (N = 1985) were tested in 2016 to 2018 for anti-T. cruzi IgG using an immunochromatographic test (ICT). Chemiluminescent immunoassay (CLIA) was performed on ICT-positive donors to exclude CD, whereas enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and Western blot were performed in case of discordant results. All assays were performed on CD patients (N = 10) for validation. Results: Ten blood donors had a positive ICT result, with a resulting T. cruzi seroprevalence of 0.5% but demonstrates negative results to CLIA, as well as to the other serological assays. The comparison of serological assays suggested a lower relative sensitivity of ICT. Conclusion: The results of this study confirm the significance of serological testing in the screening strategy for TT CD. However, they provide evidence for discontinuing the use of ICT as a screening test and suggest that a sensitive, specific and multi-sample format assay should be used at the national level for uniformity of results
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
Humoral response to the Anopheles gambiae salivary protein gSG6: IgG1 and IgG4 subclasses in exposed individuals from Burkina Faso.
No full textThe ability to monitor malaria transmission and to evaluate vector control measures are two basic ingredients of any effective anti-malaria intervention. The use of serology, in addition to classical parasitological and entomological methods, could represents an important complementary/alternative tool that may allow for wider, easier and perhaps more sensitive epidemiological analyses.
In the course of mosquito salivary transcriptome studies we identified a group of anopheline-specific salivary proteins (i.e. not found so far in any other blood sucking arthropod) which could be useful as indicators of exposure to bites of malaria vectors. We have previously shown that the Anopheles gambiae salivary protein gSG6 is immunogenic and elicits an IgG response that (i) is short-lived, (ii) varies with the transmission season and (iii) is stronger in the ethnic group Fulani as compared to Mossi in West Africa (in preparation). Moreover, the anti-gSG6 IgG response decreases with age suggesting the involvement of some mechanism of tolerance as a consequence of the continued exposure to the antigen.
To get further insights into the nature of this anti-gSG6 IgG response we measured the levels of IgG1 and IgG4 subclasses in human sera collected in a rural malaria hyperendemic area of Burkina Faso at the beginning and at the end of the transmission season, as well as during the following dry season. Overall the results are in line with our previous observations and high levels of anti-gSG6 IgG4 were found in exposed individuals. Data appear compatible with the involvement of a mechanism of desensitization and suggest that in high transmission/exposure areas this tolerance may take place early, most likely in 3 to 6 years old children
Author-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.
No full textAuthor-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.</p
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