1,721,080 research outputs found
Influenza vaccination of healthcare workers in Italy: could mandatory vaccination be a solution to protect patients?
Full text linkSeveral studies have reported that influenza infections in healthcare workers (HCWs) can lead to nosocomial outbreaks. HCWs can potentially be infected with influenza every year, and may continue to work, encouraging the spread of the virus. Different strategies, such as informative interventions on influenza and influenza vaccination, ‘onsite’ vaccination weeks, communicative strategies through dedicated web and social media pages, and mandatory informed dissent form, were organized for HCWs working at the University Hospital of Palermo, during previous influenza seasons. However, the increased vaccination rates observed among HCWs still remain far from the 75% recommended by Public Health Authorities. The level of coverage observed in countries with mandatory vaccination policies for HCWs, could suggest the adoption of this strategy for increase influenza vaccination adherence in Italy
Outbreak of Novel Coronavirus (SARS-Cov-2): First Evidences From International Scientific Literature and Pending Questions
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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
Surveillance Data for Eight Consecutive Influenza Seasons in Sicily, Italy
No full textInfluenza A and B outbreaks occur each year with different activity and molecular patterns. To date, knowledge of seasonal epidemiology remains a necessary prerequisite to put in place the most-effective immunization strategy against influenza, but also to identify population groups at higher risk of developing serious complications. A retrospective analysis of influenza surveillance data from 2010 to 2018 aimed to explore the epidemiology of influenza in Sicily, at the primary care and hospital level. Overall, 6,740 patients with acute respiratory infection were tested of which 3,032 (45.0%) were positive for influenza. The relative proportion of type A and B viruses markedly varied across seasons. Type A similarly spread among children and adults, whereas type B was more commonly identified among pediatric population aged 5-9 years. The median age of confirmed influenza cases differed by healthcare setting, increasing according to disease severity (range: 8-54 years). Among influenza confirmed cases, more than 80% of hospitalized patients had an underlying medical condition. Cardiovascular disease, lung disease, diabetes and obesity were some of the most frequent. Overall, patients admitted to an intensive care unit were more likely to have multiple comorbidities and being infected with influenza infection strongly increased the risk of severe clinical outcomes. Understanding of the epidemiology of influenza and the molecular features of circulating viruses is of paramount importance to optimize prevention and control strategies. Knowledge of predictors for the occurrence of severe forms of the disease may help to address adequate preventive measures to high-risk population groups
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
A mid-term estimate of 2018/2019 vaccine effectiveness to prevent laboratory confirmed A(H1N1)pdm09 and A(H3N2) influenza cases in Sicily (Italy)
Full text linkInfluenza season started in Italy during the month of October 2018, approaching the epidemic peak in January 2019. This report aim to explore the mid-term virologic surveillance data of the 2018–2019 influenza season in Sicily and to estimate the effectiveness of seasonal influenza vaccine (VE) against A(H1N1)pdm09 and A(H3N2) influenza viruses. A test-negative design was used to evaluate influenza VE. In Sicily, almost all influenza infections were sustained by influenza type A viruses, of which 62.3% were A(H3N2) and 36.3% A(H1N1)pdm09. A reduction of laboratory confirmed influenza cases in Sicilian population immunized against influenza were observed. In particular, an overall significant protective values were observed for any influenza A viruses (Adj-VE = 44.0%; 95%CI: 11.2–64.7%), especially among 15–64 years old age group (Adj-VE = 59.5%; 95%CI: 0.03–83.1) and among the elderly (Adj-VE = 73.6%; 95% CI: 29.4–90.2)
Measles in Italy: Viral strains and crossing borders.
Full text linkIn 2017, Italy experienced one of the largest outbreaks of measles in recent years, with 5404 notified cases and 4347 confirmed cases. A further 2029 cases were notified during the first 6 months of 2018, and 1516 of them were laboratory-confirmed. The B3 and D8 genotypes were identified as those responsible for the outbreak. Possible transmission routes can be established by monitoring the circulating measles virus strains in support of the national health authorities to warn people and travellers
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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