1,721,011 research outputs found
Presenza di ceppi di Enterococcus faecium vancomicina-resistenti in formaggi italiani
No full textIn this research, samples of artisanal and industrial Italian cheeses were acquired from different supermarkets in Sicily from September 2000 to February 2001, and were analysed for vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE). The analyzed cheeses could be divided into three categories, based on the number of enterococci as determined on Kanamycin Aesculin Agar Base (KAA). An enrichment step in Tripticase Soy Yeast Extract Broth (TSYE) supplemented with 8 g/mL vancomycin and subsequently plating out onto KAA containing vancomycin allowed the individuation of vancomycin-resistant lactic acid bacteria in 46.7% of the cheese samples analyzed. These bacteria were assigned, on the bases of their morphology and metabolic characteristics, to the genera Leuconostoc, Pediococcus and Lactobacillus, known for their intrinsic vancomycin resistance. Strains of VRE were detected in only 3 out of 30 (10%) samples of different cheeses, i.e. Asiago cheese, Pecorino Pepato cheese and grated cheese, all included in the category of cheeses with a high number of enterococci. The VRE isolates, identified as Enterococcus faecium by multiplex PCR and Specific And Random Amplification (SARA)-PCR analysis, were highly resistant to vancomycin and teicoplanin (MIC > 64 μg/mL) and harboured the vanA gene, as shown by both PCR techniques. The genetic fingerprints obtained with a RAPD-PCR assay revealed that the isolates were genotipically heterogenous thus suggesting that different VRE strains are able to colonise different Italian cheeses. Also the results obtained in this study indicate that the presence of bacteria with acquired antibiotic resistance should be closely monitored and controlled in order to make food safer
The hydraulic behaviour of the ITER full-scale divertor cassette. The transient analyses
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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
International journal of pharmaceutics 127 (1996) 165-175 new hydrogel matrices based on chemical crosslinked α,β-polyasparthydrazide: Synthesis, characterization and in vivo biocompati-bility studies
No full textNew swellable micromatrices of α,β-polyasparthydrazide (PAHy) crosslinked with glutaraldehyde were prepared. The effect of crosslinking agent concentration was evaluated. In particular, crosslinking density affected aqueous dynamic swelling and glass-transition temperature of the material. The structure of prepared networks was also studied by scanning electron microscopy and X-ray analysis. Finally, biocompatibility of PAHy derivatives was investigated in vivo by subcutaneous implantation and in oral administration to laboratory animals
A novel scoring system for TIGIT expression in classic Hodgkin lymphoma
Full text linkClinical use of immune-checkpoints inhibitors (anti PD-1/PD-L1) resulted very effective for the
treatment of relapsed/refractory classic Hodgkin Lymphoma (CHL). Recently, T cell Ig and ITIM
domains (TIGIT) has been recognized as an immune checkpoint receptor able to negatively regulate
T cell functions. Herein, we investigated the expression of TIGIT in CHL microenvironment in order
to find a potential new target for inhibitor therapy. TIGIT, PD-1 and PD-L1 expression was evaluated
in 34 consecutive patients with CHL. TIGIT expression in T lymphocytes surrounding Hodgkin Reed-
Sternberg (HRS) cells was observed in 19/34 patients (56%), of which 11 (58%) had advanced stages.
In 16/19 (84%) cases, TIGIT+ peritumoral T lymphocytes showed also PD-1 expression. All 15 TIGIT−
patients had PD-L1 expression in HRS cells (100%) while among 19 TIGIT+ patients, 11 (58%) were
PD-L1+ and 8 (42%) were PD-L1−. Using a new scoring system for TIGIT immunoreactivity, all TIGIT+
cases with higher score (4/19) were PD-L1−. Our results confirm co-expression of TIGIT and PD-1 in
peritumoral T lymphocytes. Of relevance, we demonstrated a mutually exclusive expression of TIGIT
and PD-L1 using new TIGIT scoring system able to identify this immunocheckpoints’ modulation.
These results pave the way to new therapeutic strategies for relapsed/refractory CHL
Structural optimisation of the DEMO alternative divertor configurations based on FE and RBF mesh morphing
No full textThe DEMO tokamak exhibits extraordinary complexity due to the constraints and requirements pertaining to different fields of physics and engineering. The multidisciplinary nature of the DEMO system makes its design phase extremely challenging since different and often opposite requirements need to be accounted for. Toroidal field (TF) coils generate the toroidal magnetic field required to magnetically confine the plasma particles and support at the same time the poloidal field coils. They must bear tremendous loads deriving from electromagnetic interactions between the coil currents and the generated magnetic field. An efficient tokamak design aims at minimizing the energy stored in its magnetic field and hence at reducing the toroidal volume within the TF coils whose shape would hence ideally mimic co-centrically the shape of the plasma. In order to bear the enormous forces a D-shape is most suitable for the TF coils as it allows them to resist the very large compression on the inner side and to carry the electro-magnetic (EM) pressure mainly by membrane stresses preventing large bending to occur on the outer side. At the same time the divertor structures must fit within the TF coils and this requires adaptations of the TF coil shape in the case of so-called advanced divertor configurations (ADCs), which require larger divertor structures. This article shows the TF coils adapted to ADCs using a structural optimisation procedure applied to the reference shape. The introduced strategy takes as structural optimum the iso-stress profile associated to each coil. A continuous transformation, based on radial basis functions mesh morphing, turns the baseline finite element (FE) model into its isostress counterpart, with a series of intermediate configurations available for electromagnetic and structural investigations as output. The adopted strategy allowed to determine, for each of the ADC cases, a candidate shape. Static membrane stress levels during magnetization could be reduced significantly from more than 700 MPa to below 450 MPa
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