1,720,964 research outputs found
Urinary excretion of N-acetyl-beta-D-glucosaminidase and epidermal growth factor in paediatric patients receiving cefixime prophylaxis for recurrent urinary tract infections
No full textObjective: To determine the urinary excretion of N-acetyl-beta -D-glucosaminidase (NAG; early index of renal proximal tubular damage) and epidermal growth factor (EGF; early index of renal damage repair) in paediatric patients with and without vesico-ureteric reflux (VUR) receiving prophylactic cefixime for recurrent urinary tract infections (UTIs).
Design and Setting: Urinary levels of NAG and EGF in children, with and without VUR, with recurrent UTIs receiving prophylactic cefixime were compared with normal paediatric laboratory values in a university paediatric department. All children were followed during an ordinary admission or in a day hospital.
Participants and Treatment: The study population consisted of 27 patients (15 males, 12 females; mean age 1.73 +/- 1.43 years) followed in the Paediatric Department of the University of Verona for recurrent UTIs. All patients had experienced at least two episodes of UTIs in the previous 2 months. Patients received antibiotic prophylaxis with cefixime (4 mg/kg bodyweight), administered as a single bedtime dose. The overall duration of the treatment ranged from I to 2 months. Urine samples and cultures were taken immediately prior to voiding urethrocystography via the bladder catheter and were immediately frozen at -20 degreesC. NAG activity and EGF levels in the urine were determined using a colorimetric assay and a radioimmunoassay, respectively. The urinary creatinine level was determined using the Jaffe kinetic colorimetric method at a constant reaction temperature of 37 degreesC. The values obtained were compared with the Laboratory's own reference standards for paediatric patients.
Main Outcome Measures and Results: All children in the study population presented with normal routine laboratory values, in particular serum creatinine and BUN levels. In addition, urine tests and cultures yielded normal values in III cases. In patients without VUR receiving prophylactic cefixime, the mean [ standard deviation (SD)] NAG level was 0.50 +/- 0.30 U/mmol creatinine (range 0.05 to 1.17). Only one of 20 patients had a slight increase above the normal range. In patients with VUR, the urinary NAG level was 2.55 +/- 1.66 U/mmol creatinine (range 1.37 to 6), with all seven patients having abnormally elevated NAG values. The difference in NAG levels between the two groups was statistically significant (p g/L (range 1.58 to 49.63). In patients receiving prophylaxis with cefixime with VUR treatment (group 2), the mean (+/- SD) urinary EGF level was 38.23 +/- 33.99 mug/L (range 14.4 to 107). Urinary EGF levels were not statistically different between group I and normal levels, whereas in group 2, EGF levels were significantly higher than normal levels or those of group I (p < 0.05, both comparisons).
Conclusions: Prophylactic treatment with cefixime was well tolerated, including renally, in children with recurrent UTIs without VUR. Renal tolerability was assessed using a sensitive measure of the early signs of nephrotoxicity, such as urinary NAG values, and markers of damage repair, such as urinary EGF levels. The presence of VUR in patients was associated with significant renal proximal tubular damage, as reflected in elevated urinary NAG values. The high urinary EGF values probably reflect the compensatory repair action of the kidney in patients with VUR. In conclusion, in clinical practice, cefixime may be safely suggested for antibiotic prophylaxis in paediatric patients with recurrent UTIs
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
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