1,720,975 research outputs found
From positive blood culture to microbiological diagnosis in 4 hours by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry bacterial identification and rapid antibiogram.
No full textCompositional analysis of endogenous porphyrins from Helicobacter pylori
No full textBacteria able to accumulate porphyrins can be inactivated by visible light irradiation thanks to the photosensitizing properties of this class of aromatic pigments (photodynamic therapy, PDT). Since the bacterial resistance to antibiotic is growing, PDT is becoming a valid alternative. In this context, the pathogen Helicobacter pylori (Hp) is a suitable target for PDT since it spontaneously produces and accumulates porphyrins. It is then important to understand the spectroscopic behavior of these endogenous species to exploit them as photosensitizers, thus improving the results given by the application of PDT in the treatment of Hp infections. In this work we extracted porphyrins from both a laboratory-adapted and a virulent strain of Hp, and we performed spectroscopic and chromatographic experiments to collect information about the composition and the spectrophotometric features of the extracts. The main components of the porphyrin mixtures were identified and their relative contribution to the global red fluorescence was examined
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
Saponin promotes rapid identification and antimicrobial susceptibility profiling of Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria in blood cultures with the Vitek 2 system
No full textThe rapid identification and antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) of bacteria in clinical blood cultures is crucial to optimise antimicrobial therapy. A previous study involving small sample numbers revealed that the addition of saponin to blood cultures, further referred to as the new method, shortened considerably the turn-around time for the identification and AST of Gram-positive cocci as compared to the current method involving an overnight subculture. Here, we extend previous results and compare the identification and AST of blood cultures containing Gram-negative bacilli by the new and current methods. The identification and AST of 121 Gram-positive and 109 Gram-negative bacteria in clinical monomicrobial blood cultures by the new and current methods and, in the case of Gram-negative bacilli, by direct (no additions) inoculation into an automated system (rapid method) was assessed using the Vitek 2 system. Discrepancies between the results obtained with the different methods were solved by manual methods. The new method correctly identified 88 % of Gram-positive and 98 % of Gram-negative bacteria, and the rapid method correctly identified 94 % of Gram-negative bacteria. The AST for all antimicrobials by the new method were concordant with the current method for 55 % and correct for an additional 9 % of Gram-positive bacteria, and concordant with the current method for 62 % and correct for an additional 21 % of Gram-negative bacilli. The AST by the rapid method was concordant with the current method for 62 % and correct for an additional 12 % of Gram-negative bacilli. Together, saponin-treated monomicrobial blood cultures allow rapid and reliable identification and AST of Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria
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