1,720,954 research outputs found

    Occupational asthma and rhinitis caused by 1,2-benzisothiazolin-3-one in a chemical worker

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    We report a case of occupational asthma and rhinitis caused by inhalation of 1,2-benzisothiazolin-3-one, an additive used as a microbicidal in detergent production, in a 26-year-old man employed in a chemical factory producing detergents. The subject's task consisted of pouring raw materials into the recipient of a machine which mixed the substances. Two months after the beginning of this job the patient complained of rhinitis and asthma at the workplace. The specific challenge test with 1,2-benzisothiazolin-3-one, one of the raw materials to which the subject was exposed, provoked an immediate prolonged asthmatic response and nasal symptoms, whereas exposure to other agents (e.g., alpha-amylase, alcalase or bezalkonium chloride) to which the patient was also exposed at work did not. To our knowledge this is the first case of occupational asthma and rhinitis caused by this compound

    A respiratory and allergy survey in textile workers employed in early stages of wool processing

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    OBJECTIVES: To determine frequency and type of respiratory and allergic symptoms in textile workers employed in early stages of wool processing. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was carried out in four wool textile mills. 202 subjects (n. 148 males, 54 females, mean age 38.9 yrs, SD 9.5) employed in early stages (combing, n. 138, carding, n. 64) of wool processing were examined and an environmental survey was carried out to determine the level of wool dust exposure. All subjects were submitted to clinical interview, spirometry and measurement of serum specific IgE (s-IgE) against extracts of two wool lots (Australia and New Zealand) by means of RAST. In the subjects with a positive questionnaire for allergic symptoms serum specific IgE for common pneumoallergens were measured (PHADIATOP test). RESULTS: We found higher air dust concentrations during carding operations (inspirable fraction-IF-: range 1.6-20 mg/m3; respirable fraction (RF): 0.5-6.9 mg/m3) and lower concentrations during combing (IF 0.3-0.7 mg/m3, RF 0.1-0.3 mg/m3). 70 out of 202 subjects (34.7%, n. 26 employed in carding and n. 44 in combing operations) reported work-related symptoms. Cutaneous itching was reported by 30 subjects, upper airway irritation by 24, ocular irritation by 17 and dyspnoea by 5. Globally 27 subjects (13.4%) had respiratory work-related symptoms. 12 subjects reported only seasonal respiratory symptoms not related to work. Within the group of 82 symptomatic subjects, 62 (75.6%) had serum specific IgE for common pneumoallergens. In the whole group (n. 202) mean basal FEV-1 was L 3.6, SD 0.9 (103.6% of predicted values). No significant difference was found in basal FEV-1 between carding and combing workers. No s-IgE against the two wool extracts was detectable in any of the 202 examined subjects. CONCLUSIONS: Our data show that in early stages of wool processing: 1) the overall frequency of respiratory work-related symptoms is low and does not seem to be related to the stages of processing, 2) symptoms are mainly nasal and/or ocular; 3) serum s-IgE against wool extracts are not detectable. We conclude that respiratory allergy risk in wool textile mills is low

    Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis

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    The 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

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    “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

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    We 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

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    We 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

    Author Index

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    koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist

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    We 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
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