1,720,957 research outputs found
Mediastinal teratocarcinoma as initial manifestation of asymptomatic HIV infection: a case report.
No full textA 29-year-old healthy Italian man suddenly developed sign of respiratory disease with fever (38°C) and dry cough. After 45 days he was admitted to the Section of Infectious Diseases. Routine biochemical analyses showed a decreased lymphocytes CD4+/CD8+ count (362.5 and 96, respectively; Th/Ts ratio 0.52), and increased serum alfa fetoprotein levels. Specimens cultures and serological tests for bacterial, protozoarian and viral infections were negative. A contrast-enhanced chest tomography scan showed a large mass (about 15 x 13 cm) in the right paracardiac site without homogeneous density, suspected to be a mediastinal germ cell tumor (GCT). The biopsy specimen confirmed the diagnosis of GCT, classified as teratocarcinoma. Since the lymphocytes CD4+/CD8+ levels were unexplainable reduced, we asked the patient, even if he did not have any obvious risk behaviour (i.e., multiple sexual or homosexual partners, intravenous drug use), to undergo serological tests for HIV infection. The patient tested positive to antibodies against HIV I by ELISA assay and Western blot assay; in addition, the reverse polymerase chain reaction showed HIV-RNA level about 15,000 copies/ml. The patient was offered cis-platinum therapy that he elected to receive at another hospital. After therapy was successfully completed, the patient was still asymtpmatic for HIV infection; serum HIV load was 40,000 copies and CD4+ 465/mmc. This case report confirm that extragonadal teratocarcinoma may be very rarely a first sign of HIV infection. Thus we feel that young people with a diagnosis of teratocarcinoma, even if not belonging to classic risk groups for infection, could be asked to undergo serological test for HIV
Central venous catheter infections and antibiotic therapy during long-term home parenteral nutrition: an 11-year follow-up study
No full textBACKGROUND: Catheter-related bloodstream infections are a serious and common complication in patients receiving home parenteral nutrition (HPN). METHODS: Prevalence of infections, type of agents, and effectiveness of antibiotic therapy were evaluated in 296 patients (133 males, 163 females; mean age 58.2 +/- 13.5 years) receiving HPN for at least 3 months, from January 1995 to December 2006. Patients underwent 99,969 (331 +/- 552; minimum 91, maximum
4353) days of catheterization, corresponding to 93,236 (311 +/- 489; minimum 52, maximum 4353) days of HPN. RESULTS: Fifty-two patients (24 males and 28 females; 35 oncological and 17 nononcological) were diagnosed with 169 infections. The overall corresponding infection rate was 2.0 per 1000 days of catheterization, with a progressive, regular decrease with time. In 30 cases, immediate central venous catheter removal was necessary. Infections were eradicated in 103 of 139 (74%) cases. As to the most common causative agent, 86 (51%) infections were due to Staphylococcus epidermidis. Of these, 64 were treated from 1995 to 2004, 57 of
them (89%) successfully; 22 were treated from 2005 onward, only 7 of them (32%) successfully.
CONCLUSIONS: Although the global infection rate has progressively decreased over the years, S epidermidis has shown an alarming increase in resistance to antibiotic treatment in the last 2 years, suggesting the need for strategies to prevent central venous catheter infection
Leishmaniosi delle corde vocali in soggetto immunocompetente.
No full textDescrizione di un raro caso di infestazione da Leishmania infantum localizzato solo alle corde vocali in un adulto immunocompetente, ex fumator
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
Episodi multipli di reinfestazione da Enterobius vermicularis in adulto immunocompetente
No full textDescrizione di un caso clinico di ossiuriasi recidivante (7 episodi consecutivi) in paziente adulto immuncompetent
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
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