104,923 research outputs found
The theory of a "staphylococcus superantigen" in chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps: myth or reality?
No full textOBJECTIVE: The aim of our study was to search for evidence of a "staphylococcus superantigen" in chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Sixty-nine patients with chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps and 45 healthy controls were included in the study. All patients in the study and control groups underwent bacteriological and immunological examination on nasal smear samples. Total IgE and the following cytokines were tested in all patients: tumor necrosis factor (TNF), interleukin-1 (IL1), interleukin-6 (IL6), interleukin-8 (IL8). RESULTS: The concentration of bacteria in the nasal cavity was much higher in patients in the study group compared to those in the control group, mainly due to staphylococci. In species identification of staphylococci, bacteria most represented were S. aureus and S. epidermidis. The greater the concentration of S. aureus, the lower the level of IgE. Proinflam-matory cytokines were uniformly increased in patients with nasal polyps. The level of IgE was maximal in patients with chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps with a poor growth of culture and minimal in patients with abundant growth, suggesting that in the latter the effect of eosinophilic inflammation on the disease was reduced, and conversely, the activity of eosinophilic inflammation was maximal with a poor seeding of the nasal cavity. CONCLUSIONS: Although this study has some limits, our findings do not support the theory of a staphylococcus superantigen in which the IgE level and eosinophilic inflammation should increase with increasing activity of Staphylococcus aureus. Further research supported by a larger sample of patients is required to better delineate the role of a staphylococcus superantigen in the pathogenesis of patients with chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps
Zachvatkinia (Zachvatkinia) repressae Negm & Alatawi, sp. n.
No full textZachvatkinia (Zachvatkinia) repressae Negm & Alatawi sp. n. (Figs. 1 ̶ 9) Type material. Male holotype (KSMA), 8 male and 18 female paratypes ex Sterna repressa Hartert, 1916 (Charadriiformes: Sternidae), Jana Island, Arabian Gulf, Saudi Arabia, 27 º 22 ' 10 "N, 49 º 53 ' 53 "E, 11 July 2012, leg. M.G. Nasser. Holotype, most male and female paratypes—KSMA; a paratype female and male—The Acarology Laboratory, Museum of Biological Diversity, The Ohio State University. Description. Male (Figs. 1–5) (holotype, range for 4 paratypes in parentheses): gnathosoma length 100 (90– 105), maximum width 80 (80–85). Idiosoma length 710 (650–720) from anterior end of propodosomal shield to level of bases of setae h 3 posteriorly, greatest width 340 (322–348) (Fig. 1). Propodosomal shield: subtriangular, posterolateral angles rounded, posterior margin straight or slightly convex and with a pair of small transversely directed extensions, surface of shield without ornamentation, length along midline 180 (166–180), maximum width 210 (200–228), lengths of scapular setae si 26 (24–26) and se 125 (122–126), distance between setae se-se 180 (173–180) (Fig. 3). Humeral shields well developed, setae c 2 35 (32–36) situated on their anterior ends, lanceolate setae c 3 45 (44–46) long and macrosetae cp 125 (122–128) long. Hysteronotal shield: anterior margin straight or slightly concave, anterior angles acute, length from anterior margin to the bases of setae h 3 530 (515–542), width at anterior margin 300 (288–305). Openings of opisthosomal glands situated anterolateral to setae e 1. Terminal cleft narrow, subtriangular, anterior end extending beyond level of setae e 2, length of cleft from anterior end to bases of setae h 3 250 (248–253). Setae ps 1 60 (57–62) long, situated on lateral margins of supranal concavity, their tips almost extending to bases of setae h 3. Macrosetae h 2 and h 3 with noticeably thickened basal part and with long filiform distal part. Distances between hysteronotal setae: c 2:d 2 165 (161–172), d 2:e 2 135 (134–143), e 2:f 2 132 (132–145), f 2:h 2 33 (25–33), c 1:d 1 82 (80–86), d 1:e 1 112 (100–114), e 1:h 1 188 (178–190), h 1:h 3 120 (116–122), ps 2:ps 1 45 (45–50). Epimerites I fused into a Y, sternum without lateral extensions (Fig. 2). Setae 1a 40 (38–41) long, situated on coxal fields I close to epimerites II. Coxal field II open. Epimerites III and IIIa fused, coxal field III closed, setae 3 b 50 (45–52) long. Setae 3a 37 (35–38) long, situated approximately at same level with setae 3 b. Setae 4a 37 (37–42) long, situated at same level with genital papillae. Distances between ventral setae: 1 a: 1a 105 (102–110), 3 b: 3 b 205 (202–212), 4 a: 4a 97 (95–99), 3 a: 3a 45 (44–50), g:g 37 (36–42), ps 3:ps 3 48 (48–50). Distance from genital arch apex to level of setae ps 1 230 (212–241). Genital arch shaped as inverted bowl, free ends of its branches directed outward (Fig. 4). Length of genital arch 37 (35–38), width 50 (47–54). Genital shields represented by small and narrow longitudinal strips widely separated from each other, setae g situated on posterior ends of genital shields. Adanal shields fused and form acute median extensions with two small lateral ledges. One pair of additional adanal sclerites shaped as inverted cups present, closely adjacent or poorly connected to adanal apodemes. Bases of setae g and ps 3 in subrectangular arrangement. Anal suckers rounded, 35 (32–37) in diameter. Legs III extend beyond lobar apices by full tarsus. Tarsus III with seta s thick, spine-like and tridentate apically (Fig. 5 A). Tarsus IV with two dorsobasal spines and with one apical spine-like extension at base of modified seta e (Fig. 5 B). Female (Figs. 6–9) (range for 5 paratypes): gnathosoma length 80–90, width 70–80. Idiosoma: length 440–466 from anterior end of propodosomal shield to level of bases of setae h 3, maximum width 280–310 (Fig. 6). Propodosomal shield: subtriangular in shape as in males, posterior margin conspicuously convex, without extensions, lateral angles with small notches posterior to bases of setae se, length along midline 122–130, width at the level of scapular setae se 144–150, distance between scapular setae si - si 92–100 (Fig. 8). One pair of small transverse sclerites situated between propodosomal shield and transverse row of setae c 1, c 2. Humeral shields narrow, not developed dorsally and not extending beyond anterior ends of hysteronotal shields. Setae c 2 situated off humeral shields. Humeral setae cp filiform, 80–88 long, subhumeral setae c 3 spiculiform, 33–37 long. Hysteronotal shields: one pair of large longitudinal shields along lateral body margins, separated by wide longitudinally striated area. Setae d 1 situated on median striated integument of hysterosoma, close to inner margins of hysteronotal shields. Pygidial shield present, length 21-25, width 70–76. Distances between hysteronotal setae: c 2:d 2 128–135, d 2:e 2 110–116, c 1:d 1 73–77, d 1:e 1 115–122. Epimerites I fused into a Y (Fig. 7). Length of setae 1a 16 – 18. Epimerites II free, with pointed tips. Remnants of epimerites IIa not fused with humeral shields. Transverse sclerites situated much anterior to the level of epimerites III, not fused to epigynum. Epimerites III and IVa short. Length of setae 3 b 25–30. Setae 3a 14 – 17 situated anteriorly to level of setae 3 b, while setae g slightly posterior to them. Distances between ventral setae: 1 a: 1a 92– 105, 3 b: 3 b 180–205, 3 a: 3a 51 – 55, g:g 72–85, 4 a: 4a 48 – 56. Epigynum semicircular, bow-shaped, length 35–37, width 75–90, its tips extending slightly beyond level of setae 3 a but not reaching level of genital papillae (Fig. 8). Oviporus folds moderate in size and extend to level of epimerites IIIa tips. Tarsi, tibiae, genua and femora of legs I– IV longer than wide. Legs IV extend beyond posterior margin of opisthosoma by distal half of tarsus. Tarsus IV twice as long as corresponding tibia. Differential diagnosis. The new species Z. repressae sp. n. can be differentiated from the morphologically most similar species, Zachvatkinia chlidoniae Mironov, 1989, by the following characters: In males of Z. repressae sp. n., the branches of the genital arch are slightly curved, so that their free ends are directed outward while the anterior end of the arch forms an acute angle, the anterior end of the adanal shield forms an acute angle (Fig. 4), and the posterior margin of propodosomal shield has a pair of small transversely directed extensions (Fig. 3). In males of Z. chlidoniae, the branches of the genital arch are strongly S-shaped, so that their free ends are bent forward, the front end of the adanal shield forms an obtuse angle, the posterior margin of propodosomal shield is slightly convex and has no extensions. In females of Z. repressae sp. n. the epigynum is 75–90 in width, while in Z. chlidoniae it is shorter (64-72) (Mironov, 1989 a). Etymology. The new species epithet repressae derives from the specific name of the type host. Remarks. In Saudi Arabia, Sterna repressa occurs during the breeding season in summer in many islands of the Arabian Gulf and Red Sea, where it nests. Sterna repressa is distributed through Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, India, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Maldives, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Seychelles, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, United Arab Emirates and Yemen (Porter & Aspinall 2010). In his review of the genus Zachvatkinia, Mironov (1989 a) largely revised material previously investigated from host species in the Procellariiformes and Charadriiformes in the USSR, resulting in 12 species, of which six were new. Procellariiformes are assumed to be primary hosts for feather mites of the genus Zachvatkinia. The study of host-parasite associations revealed some features of co-evolution both with procellariiform and charadriiform hosts (Mironov, 1991 a). Zachvatkinia (Zachvatkinia) dromae Mironov, 1992 Zachvatkinia (Zachvatkinia) dromae Mironov, 1992: 497. Specimens examined. Many males, females and nymphs, from the crab plover, Dromas ardeola Paykull, 1805 (Charadriiformes: Dromadidae), Farasan Archipelago, Jazan province, Saudi Arabia, 16 º 50 ' 4 ''N, 42 º 1 ' 38 "E, 17 July 2012, leg. M.G. Nasser. Remarks. In Saudi Arabia, the crab plover breeds during summer in some Red Sea islands including Farasan Archipelago and Umm Al-Qamarie Island and are usually never seen in the mainland. It is distributed through the East African coast, Red Sea, Arabian Gulf and Southern coast of Iran, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka (Baker 1929; Porter & Aspinall 2010). The type specimens of Z. dromae were collected from D. ardeola captured on Providence Island, Madagascar (Mironov 1992: 499). The Saudi specimens are very similar to the description done by Mironov, 1992 who illustrated the propodosomal shield of female without notches at the posterolateral angles; however, some of the Saudi specimens have small notches posterior to scapular setae se. This is the first record of this species in Saudi Arabia. Up to now, Z. dromae is known from just two countries, Madagascar (Mironov 1992) and Saudi Arabia (present study).Published as part of Negm, Mohamed W., Nasser, D., Alatawi, Fahad J., Al Ahmad, Azzam M. & Shobrak, Mohammed, 2013, Feather mites of the genus Zachvatkinia Dubinin, 1949 (Astigmata: Analgoidea: Avenzoariidae) from Saudi Arabia: A new species and two new records, pp. 61-71 in Zootaxa 3710 (1) on pages 63-70, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3710.1.4, http://zenodo.org/record/28466
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
No full textThe 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
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
No full textWe 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
No full textWe 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
The construction of Karen Karnak: The multi-author-function
No full textThis thesis is situated within the comparatively recent developments of Web 2.0 and the emergence of interactive WikiMedia, and explores the mode of authorship within a Read/Write culture compared to that of a Read/Only tradition. The hypothesis of this study is that the role of the audience has become merged with the author, and as such, represents new functions and attributes, distinct from a more conventional concept of authorship, in which the roles of audience and author are more separate. Read/Write and participatory culture, as defined by this study, is focused on collaboration, and includes the influences of D.I.Y. culture, Open-Source practices and the production of text by multiple authors. Multi-authorship presents a re-thinking of several concepts which support the notion of the individual author, since the focus of multi-authorship is not on attribution and ownership of a finished text, but on the continued malleability of a text. Modes of multi-authorship, demonstrated in the use of the pseudonyms Alan Smithee and Karen Eliot, represent declarative authors whose names signify multiple origins, whilst concurrently indicating a distinct body of work. The function of these names form an important context to this study, since primary research involves the construction of an experimental mode of multi-authorship utilising WikiMedia technology and the interaction of thirty nine participants, who are invited to create a body of work under the collective pseudonym Karen Karnak. The data generated by this experiment is analysed using aspects of Michel Foucault's author-function to identify and determine power structures inherent in the WikiMedia context. The interplay of power structures, including concepts such as identity, ownership and the body of work, affect the resulting mode of authorship and contribute to the construction of Karen Karnak, suggesting further areas of research into the emerging multi-author
Contribution of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in Country’S H-Index
No full textThe aim of this study is to examine the effect of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) development on country’s scientific ranking as measured by H-index. Moreover, this study applies ICT development sub-indices including ICT Use, ICT Access and ICT skill to find the distinct effect of these sub-indices on country’s H-index. To this purpose, required data for the panel of 14 Middle East countries over the period 1995 to 2009 is collected. Findings of the current study show that ICT development increases the H-index of the sample countries. The results also indicate that ICT Use and ICT Skill sub-indices positively contribute to higher H-index but the effect of ICT access on country’s H-index is not clear
Fully Turbulent Mean Velocity Profile for Purely Viscous non-Newtonian Fluids
No full textThe characteristic near wall behavior of turbulent flow of purely-viscous non-Newtonian fluids is discussed for both power-law (P.-L.) and Herschel-Bulkley (H.-B.) rheological models. A proper scaling is presented for H.-B. fluids to establish an analogy with power-law fluids with same flow index. To provide reference data for turbulent flow of non-Newtonian fluids, DNS simulations of power-law fluids are conducted in a rectangular channel for a large range of power-law indices ( = 0.5, 0.69, 0.75, 0.9, 1, 1.2). The DNS data show that the mean velocity profile in the viscous and logarithmic layers follow expressions of the form and respectively, where shows a logarithmic dependency on the flow index.Comparison with some experimental data shows the above formulation to be valid for Reynolds numbers (based on shear velocity) as high as 1000
H-index and research evaluation: A suggested set of components for developing a comprehensive author-level index
No full textThe H-index has been investigated in various studies; this index has many strengths that have made it popular. However, it also has weaknesses, due to which other indicators have been developed. This study aims to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the H-index and provide the minimum set of necessary components for developing a comprehensive author-level index. In this systematic literature review, Scopus, PubMed, Web of Science, Emerald, and ProQuest databases were searched to identify relevant studies. From the number of 14,253 retrieved studies, after two stages of screening, 81 studies were selected according to the eligibility criteria for data extraction. The findings of the study led to the identification of 15 strengths in the three categories of Quality Features, Simplicity, and Suitability, and 13 weaknesses in the six categories of Publications, Citations, Academic Age, Author Credit Allocation, Variety of Fields, and mathematical calculation for H-index. Finally, 28 components were identified as the minimum set of necessary components to develop a comprehensive author-level index to help evaluate researchers more realistically and fairly. The minimum components that need to be considered in developing a comprehensive author-level index can be proposed as follows: Quality Features, Simplicity, Suitability, Publications, Citations, Academic Age, Author Credit Allocation, Variety of Fields, and mathematical calculation
Letter from Bob H. Suzuki, President, CSU Pomona, June 13, 1993
No full textA letter from President Bob H. Suzuki thanking guests of a garden reception and asking for their support to fund Michi Nishiura and Walter Weglyn Endowed Chair in Multicultural Studies.These materials are from box 73 and 74 of the Frank Chin Papers. The Frank Chin Papers contain personal and professional correspondence between Frank Chin and Michi Weglyn relating to particular projects on which either author was working as well as files related to the Day of Remembrance Tribute to Michi Weglyn
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