1,720,964 research outputs found
Preliminary data on glyphosate, glufosinate, and metabolite contamination in Italian honey samples
Full text linkGlyphosate and glufosinate are among the most widely used pesticides in agriculture worldwide. Their extensive use leads to the presence of their residues on crops and in the surrounding environment. Beehives, bees, and apiculture products can represent potential sources for the accumulation of these substances and their metabolites, and the consequences for bee health, as well as the level of risk to human health from consuming contaminated food, are still unclear. Furthermore, information on the contamination levels of honey and other beehive products by these compounds remains poorly documented. This study is part of a broader research effort aimed at developing specific analytical methods for monitoring the level of these contaminants in bee products. The methodology employed enabled the acquisition of preliminary information concerning the levels of glyphosate and glufosinate contamination in honey samples obtained from various retailers in Italy to assess compliance with the limits established by Regulation 293/2013. The liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry analysis of the 30 honey samples revealed quantifiable levels of glyphosate in eight samples, with contamination ranging from 5.4 to 138.5 ng/g. Notably, one sample of the wildflower type showed residue levels nearly three times the maximum residue limit. Additionally, trace levels of glyphosate contamination were detected in another ten samples. It is noteworthy that glufosinate and its metabolites were not detected in any of the analyzed samples within the established method's detection ranges
Glyphosate and Glufosinate Residues in Honey and Other Hive Products
Full text linkHive products have numerous beneficial properties; however, the hive’s health is affected by the surrounding environment. The widespread use of herbicides in agriculture, such as glyphosate and glufosinate, has raised alarm among consumers, beekeepers, and environmentalists due to their potential to harm bees and humans through the consumption of bee products. This review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the presence of glyphosate, glufosinate, and their metabolites in hive products, collecting and comparing available data from peer-reviewed research and surveys conducted across several countries. Moreover, it analyzes and discusses the potential impacts of these substances on human and bee health, analytical aspects, and recent regulatory developments. The data has revealed that these substances can be present in the different matrices tested, but the concentrations found are usually lower than the maximum residue limits set. However, the use of different methodologies with non-uniform analytical performances, together with an incomplete search for regulated analytes, leads to heterogeneity and makes comparisons challenging. In addition to the completion of studies on the toxicology of herbicide active ingredients, further monitoring actions are necessary, harmonizing analytical methodologies and data management procedures
Analysis of Cobalamin (Vit B12) in Ripened Cheese by Ultra-High-Performance Liquid Chromatography Coupled with Mass Spectrometry
Full text linkThe analysis of natural cobalamins in dairy products still represents an analytical challenge. The matrix’s complexity, low concentration level, light sensitivity, and binding to proteins are just some of the aspects that make their quantification a difficult goal to achieve. Vitamin B12 plays a fundamental role in human nutrition, and its intake is closely linked to a diet that includes the consumption of food of animal origin. In the current literature, few studies have been carried out on the quantitation of cobalamin in ripened cheeses. A sensitive, selective, and robust ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS) method was developed, validated, and applied on ripened cheeses from different species (cow, sheep, and goat) purchased from local Italian markets, highlighting species-dependent differences in vitamin B12 concentrations. The vitamin B12 extraction procedure was performed by converting all cobalamins to the cyanocobalamin form. Furthermore, solid-phase extraction was used for matrix clean-up and analyte preconcentration. The proposed method showed good performance in terms of linearity, sensitivity, reproducibility, and repeatability. The mean vitamin B12 content ranged from <LOQ to 38.9 ng/g. Sheep cheese showed the highest concentrations of vitamin B12, with a mean content of 29.0 ng/g
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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