1,720,962 research outputs found
IONIZED HYPOCALCEMIA AND URINARY CALCIUM DURING SIRS IN DOGS: INCIDENCE AND PROGNOSTIC SIGNIFICANCE
No full textIntroduction/Objectives:
Ionized Hypocalcemia (iHCa) is a common electrolyte disturbance in critically ill patients of
potentially prognostic significance. The pathogenesis of iHCa is likely multifactorial, including an
increase in urinary fractional excretion of calcium (FECa). The aim of this preliminary study was to
determine the incidence and the prognostic significance of iHCa during the Systemic Inflammatory
Response Syndrome (SIRS) in dogs. Furthermore a potential correlation between low Ionized
Calcium (iCa) concentration and FECa was investigated in this population.
Methods:
Dogs admitted to the University of Bologna Veterinary Teaching Hospital between December 2010
and July 2011 with clinical signs of SIRS (T 39°C; HR > 120/min; RR > 20/min, WBC count >
16000 or < 6000 cells/μL) were selected. Cases were excluded if younger than 1 year of age,
diagnosed with Chronic Kidney Disease or parathyroid glands diseases, or recently treated with
drugs known to alter iCa concentration. Venous blood gas analysis, including iCa measurement, and
urinalysis with FECa calculation were performed upon admission. Additional laboratory analysis
included measurement of C-Reactive Protein (CRP), lactate, Antithrombin Activity (AT), proteinuria
and albuminuria. Illness severity was calculated by the Acute Patient Physiologic and Laboratory
Evaluation (APPLE) Fast Score. A group of healthy dogs (n=32) was included as negative control. Non
parametric statistics (Mann Whitney U-Test and Spearman's Correlation Coefficient) and regression
analysis were performed. Statistical significance was set at p<0,05.
Results:
22 dogs with SIRS were enrolled. The incidence of iHCa (iCa < 1,21 mmol/L) was 31,8%
(median=1,22; 1,07-1,36). iHCa was not associated with outcome or duration of hospital stay. FECa (%) was significantly higher in SIRS (median=0,23; 0,06-1,61) compared to healthy dogs
(median=0,10; 0,03-0,68), but mostly within the reference interval. No correlation between FECa
and iHCa was found. Lactate, BE, Urine Protein/Creatinine Ratio (UPC), Urine Albumin/ Creatinine
Ratio (UAC) and the APPLE Fast Score were all significantly increased in non-survivors compared to
survivors. After multivariate analysis was performed, AT and APPLE Fast Score were the only variable
significantly associated with outcome (p <0,004 and 0,003 respectively)
Discussion:
The incidence of iHCa in this population is higher than previously reported in critically ill dogs, and
no association with prognosis was identified. Renal loss of calcium does not seem to be the major
cause of iHCa in dogs with SIRS. However, other pathogenetic mechanisms of iHCa during critical
illness have not been inestigated. AT and APPLE Fast Score show a significant prognostic value in this
population.
Conclusion:
Ionized Hypocalcemia is confirmed in dogs with SIRS; its potential prognostic significance during the
course of this syndrome needs to be clarified in a larger population. Increased urine calcium does
not seem to be associated with iHCa in critically ill dogs. Further prospective studies investigating
other potential causes of iHCa, including a disruption in the parathyroid- vitamin D axis and
increment in circulating inflammatory cytokines and calcitonin precursors, are needed
Minimum-impact-on-classifier (MIC) watermarking for protection of remote sensing imagery
No full textThe application of digital watermarking to remote sensing images requires a careful quality assessment in order to understand how the data quality is affected by the water-mark. We propose a watermarking approach that minimizes the watermark impact on image classification, based on the idea of modulating the insertion coefficient in each channel so as to preserve to a larger extent the channels which classification is most sensitive to; we also propose a simplified procedure for estimating cluster displacement due to watermarking, leading to a low-complexity insertion approach. Experimental results on Landsat 7 ETM+ and IKONOS images show that the proposed MIC approach is able to significantly reduce classification errors, and to keep them within the intrinsic classification error
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
Author-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.
No full textAuthor-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.</p
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