1,720,968 research outputs found
Surveillance of plant protection pesticides-related poisonings and injuries
No full textBackground Regulation 2009/1185/EU on sustainable use of
pesticides requires reporting from European Member States on
plant protection pesticide (PPP) poisonous exposures. These data
can provide information to identify emerging problems and populations
at risk, support the development of preventive and regulatory
measures and evaluate their effectiveness. In Italy, a
surveillance of acute PPP-related poisonings (SAPReP), based on
Poison Control Centres data, has been implemented since 2001.
In this contribution are presented the main characteristics of cases
exposed in Italy in 2007–2012.
Methods series of cases identified by the National Poison Control
Centre in Milan, reviewed and classified by the Italian National
Institute of Health according to standard procedures.
Results In 2007–2012, SAPReP identified 2,108 cases of accidental
PPP-related poisonings and injuries. Male patients were 1,442
(68%) while females were 442 (20%). Gender was unknown in
12% of cases (No. 224) Severity of poisoning was low in 84% of
cases (No. 1,774), moderate in 14% (n. 305), high in 1% (n. 28).
One case of death was identified. About 50% of poisonings
occurred at work, in agricultural settings, and 36% at home.
Some 70% of exposures occurred between May and September.
Insecticides/acaricides were responsible in 42% of poisonings,
fungicides/bactericides in 16%, herbicides in 15%, and soil sterilants
in 13%. Five mass exposures were identified: two incidents
were caused by off-site drift of metam sodium, a soil sterilant,
and involved 86 and 103 by-standers, respectively; two incidents
were caused by chlorpyrifos methyl, an organophosphate insecticide/
acaricide (one occurred in a hospital, 10 cases; one occurred
in agricultural setting, 20 agricultural workers); one incident was
caused by phenthoate and involved 40 agricultural workers
Conclusions Surveillance based on data collected by Poison Control
Centres provides an important tool to identify emerging problems and associated risk factors. The observations available
in Italy on PPP-related poisonings and injuries suggest that greater
efforts are needed to prevent these types of incidents
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
Combined effects of office and 24-hour blood pressure on aortic stiffness in human hypertension.
No full textObjective Aortic stiffness, a prognostically adverse marker
of arteriosclerosis, is critically dependent on blood pressure
(BP). Office BP may not always reflect BP behaviour away
from the medical environment, and it is uncertain whether
office or out-of-office BP values are stronger determinants
of arterial stiffness.
Methods Twenty-four-hour BP and carotid-to-femoral
pulse wave velocity (PWV) – a direct measure of aortic
stiffness – were measured in 539 never-treated
hypertensive patients and in 71 normotensive individuals.
Results Sustained hypertensive patients had a higher age
and heart-rate-adjusted aortic PWV than normotensive
individuals (9.7+/-2 vs. 8.5+/-2 m/s, P<0.001), even after
further adjustment for office mean pressure as a measure of
distending pressure (P=0.018). The higher aortic PWV in
white-coat hypertensive patients as compared with
normotensive individuals (9.3+/-2 vs. 8.5+/-2 m/s, P=0.026)
did not hold after adjustment for office mean pressure
(P=0.16). To examine the independent effect of office BP
on aortic PWV beyond the influence of 24-h BP, patients
were classified according to the difference between
observed and predicted office systolic BP (the latter
determined by regressing 24-h BP on office BP). Despite
having comparable 24-h BP values (131/82 vs. 131/84
mmHg), the patients with higher-than-predicted office BP
had higher aortic PWV than those with lower-than-predicted
office BP (10.1+/-2 vs. 9.2+/-2 m/s, P<0.001). Similarly, after
regressing office BP on 24-h BP, the group with higherthan-
predicted 24-h BP also had higher aortic PWV (9.9+/-2
vs. 9.5+/-2 m/s, P<0.05) despite having identical office BP
(152/95 vs. 152/96 mmHg). In a multivariate regression
model, both 24-h and office mean BP independently
predicted aortic PWV.
Conclusions Both office and out-of-office BP are
independent predictors of aortic PWV in hypertension.
Elevated BP values over the 24 h are associated with
increased isobaric aortic stiffness
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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