Platelet satellitism in infectious disease?

Background

Platelet satellitism is a phenomenon of unknown etiology of aggregating platelets around polymorphonuclear neutrophils and other blood cells which causes pseudothrombocytopenia, visible by microscopic examination of blood smears. It has been observed so far in about a hundred cases in the world.

Case subject and methods

Our case involves a 73-year-old female patient with a urinary infection. Biochemical serum analysis (CRP, glucose, AST, ALT, ALP, GGT, bilirubin, sodium, potassium, chloride, urea, creatinine) and blood cell count were performed with standard methods on autoanalyzers. Serum protein fractions were examined by electrophoresis and urinalysis with standard methods on autoanalyzer together with microscopic examination of urine sediment. Erythrocyte sedimentation rate, blood culture and urine culture tests were performed with standard methods.

Results

Due to typical pathological values for bacterial urinary infection, the patient was admitted to the hospital. Blood smear examination revealed phenomenon, which has persisted for three weeks after the disease has been cured. Blood smears with EDTA as an anticoagulant had platelet satellitism whereas the phenomenon was not observed in tubes with different anticoagulants (Na, Li-heparin) and capillary blood.

Discussion

We hypothesize that satellitism was induced by some immunological mechanism through formation of antibodies which have mediated platelets binding to neutrophil membranes and vice versa. Unfortunately we were unable to determine the putative trigger for this phenomenon. To our knowledge this is the second case of platelet satellitism ever described in Croatia.Key words: blood platelets, thrombocytopenia, EDTA, urinary infection     

Does gender matter in computer ethics?

Computer ethics is a relatively young discipline,hence it needs time both for reflection and forexploring alternative ethical standpoints in buildingup its own theoretical framework. Feminist ethics isoffered as one such alternative particularly to informissues of equality and power. We argue that feministethics is not narrowly confined to women's issues but is an approach with wider egalitarianapplications. The rise of feminist ethics in relationto feminist theory in general is described and withinthat the work of Gilligan and others on an ethic of care. We argue for the need to connect theory toempirical evidence. Empirical studies of gender andbusiness and computer ethics are reviewed. We noteconcerns with surveying a student audience, the issueof how far questionnaires and interviews can get tothe heart of ethical beliefs and problems ofperforming statistical analyses of quantitative data.Although we recognize them, our own small surveycannot avoid all these problems. Nevertheless byrefining our scenarios we are able to offer analternative reading of a hacking problem in terms ofan ethic of care thereby pointing a way forward forfuture research in computer ethics inspired byfeminist theory.     

How to encourage students in learning chemistry?

<正>Chemistry is a basis for almost all science and engineering disciplines) and needs to be well mastered by both researchers and students.But in the eyes of many Chinese students and their parents, chemistry is not an initial choice because first, it seems to be less important than mathematics and physics,and second) chemistry-majored students usually cannot get high salaries after graduation, and may encounter safety risks when conducting chemical experiments.     

Why super sandstorm 2021 in North China?

Severe sandstorms reoccurred in the spring of 2021 after an absence for more than 10 years in North China. The dust source area, located in Mongolia, suffered destructive cooling and warming in early and late winter, which loosened the land. A lack of precipitation, excessive snow melt and strong evaporation resulted in dry soil and exiguous spring vegetation. A super-strong Mongolian cyclone developed on the bare and loose ground, and easily blew and transported large amounts of sand particles into North China. Furthermore, top-ranking anomalies (sea ice shift in the Barents and Kara Sea, and sea surface temperatures in the east Pacific and northwest Atlantic) were found to induce the aforementioned tremendous climate anomalies in the dust source area. Analyses, based on large-ensemble Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6, yield results identical to the reanalysis data. Thus, the climate variabilities at different latitudes and synoptic disturbances jointly facilitated the strongest spring sandstorm over the last decade.     

Do scientific capabilities in specific domains matter for technological diversification in European regions?

Do scientific capabilities in regions translate into technological leadership? This is one of the most pressing questions in academic and policy circles. This paper analyzes the matching of scientific and technological capabilities of 285 European regions. We build on patent and publication records to identify regions that lie both at the scientific and technological frontiers (strongholds), that are pure scientific leaders, pure technological leaders, or just followers in 18 domains. Our regional diversification model shows that local scientific capabilities in a domain are a strong predictor of the development of new technologies in that domain in regions. This finding is particularly relevant for the Smart Specialization policy because it implies that the analysis of domain-specific scientific knowledge can be a powerful tool to identify new diversification opportunities in regions.     

Reviewing patent policy: an exercise in futility?

In 1984, Don Lamberton wrote a two-page disclaimer to a review of the Australian patent system, pointing out that there was nothing economic about the review and that it simply pandered to special interest groups. Some 30 years later, the Productivity Commission has been given a shorter time frame (one year) and a broader remit (all intellectual property). This paper reviews the issues addressed in the Industrial Property Advisory Committee (IPAC) review of 1984. Since it was completed, substantially more empirical evidence has become available, while room for policy improvement has been curtailed by international trade treaties. While the Productivity Commission will take a sound economic approach, the breadth of its remit may prevent full appreciation of the critical issues in patent policy. This paper considers the options remaining to the Commission to recommend improvements in the national interest. Whether these will be taken up depends on the priority given to the interests of small but powerful lobby groups.     

Oxygen as a catalyst in the Earth's interior?

The abundance of the element oxygen is not only crucial for life at the surface of the Earth, but also greatly affects the properties and dynamics of the interi...     

How do we handle self-plagiarism in submitted manuscripts?

Self-plagiarism is a controversial issue in scientific writing and presentation of research data. Unlike plagiarism, self-plagiarism is difficult to interpret as intellectual theft under the justification that one cannot steal from oneself. However, academics are concerned, as self-plagiarized papers mislead readers, do not contribute to science, and bring undeserved credit to authors. As such, it should be considered a form of scientific misconduct. In this paper, we explain different forms of self-plagiarism in scientific writing and then present good editorial policy toward questionable material. The importance of dealing with self-plagiarism is emphasized by the recently published proposal of Text Recycling Guidelines by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).     

Biotechnology in the Netherlands: controversy or consensus?

This paper addresses the issue of public perception of modern biotechnology in the Netherlands. Contrary to expectations, data from the 1999 Eurobarometer on biotechnology indicate that the position of the Dutch public in general is rather ambiguous, which is in contrast to many of its neighboring countries. The issue is described in terms of differences between the Netherlands and other European countries on political-economic, social-cultural, or media coverage indicators. On many indicators, the Dutch population differs from that of other European countries, and the Dutch opinion-leading media present a rather balanced perspective on modern biotechnology.     

Human capital intensity in technology-based firms located in Portugal: Does foreign ownership matter?

This paper contributes to the scarce empirical literature on the impact of foreign ownership on human capital intensity. New evidence is provided, based on a comprehensive, large-scale survey of technology-based firms located in Portugal. The key findings are that: (1) foreign ownership directly (and significantly) impacts a firm's general human capital (education); (2) foreign ownership indirectly (and significantly) impacts a firm's specific human capital (skills); (3) the total impact of foreign ownership on a firm's human capital intensity is higher for education- (general) than for skills- (specific) related human capital intensity. Giving the critical importance of both FDI and human capital development for an ‘intermediate’ economy like Portugal (lagging behind in terms of human capital stock, and seeming to have lost part of its attractiveness as an FDI location), the paper discusses related policy implications. It is believed that our results and conclusions may be useful for other countries facing similar challenges.     

What is cyberwoman?: The Second Sex in cyberspace

In this paper I wish to show that, although traditional notions of genderand sex break down in cyberspace, a revised Beauvoirian understanding ofsexual secondariness is applicable and useful in coming to terms with thepossible ethical and philosophical ramifications of this relatively newcommunication medium. To this end, I argue that persons who enter intocommunication in online chat rooms necessarily deny the bodily aspectsof their own identity. In so doing, these persons make themselvesinessential, or secondary, in Beauvior's sense. For Beauvoir, this isa denial of one's own freedom, and thus commmunication in cyberspacebecomes an instance of self-oppression. Yet, if self-oppression canbe avoided, the self-oppressor is morally responsible for her or hisown oppression. Ultimately, I argue, cyberspatial communication is aninstance of such self-oppression.     

Popular evolutionary psychology in the UK: an unusual case of science in the media?

This paper presents findings from quantitative analyses of UK press and print media coverage of evolutionary psychology during the 1990s. It argues that evolutionary psychology presents an interesting case for studies of science in the media in several different ways. First, press coverage of evolutionary psychology was found to be closely linked with the publications of popular books on the subject. Secondly, when compared to coverage of other subjects, a higher proportion of academics and authors wrote about evolutionary psychology in the press, contributing to the development of a scientific controversy in the public domain. Finally, it was found that evolutionary psychology coverage appeared in different areas of the daily press, and was rarely written about by specialist science journalists. The possible reason for these features are then explored, including the boom in popular science publishing during the 1990s, evolutionary psychology's status as a new subject of study and discussion, and the nature of the subject its as theoretically based and with a human, "everyday" subject matter.     

Resampling methods in Microsoft Excel? for estimating reference intervals

Computer- intensive resampling/bootstrap methods are feasible when calculating reference intervals from non-Gaussian or small reference samples. Microsoft Excel^® in version 2010 or later includes natural functions, which lend themselves well to this purpose including recommended interpolation procedures for estimating 2.5 and 97.5 percentiles.
The purpose of this paper is to introduce the reader to resampling estimation techniques in general and in using Microsoft Excel^® 2010 for the purpose of estimating reference intervals in particular.
Parametric methods are preferable to resampling methods when the distributions of observations in the reference samples is Gaussian or can transformed to that distribution even when the number of reference samples is less than 120. Resampling methods are appropriate when the distribution of data from the reference samples is non-Gaussian and in case the number of reference individuals and corresponding samples are in the order of 40. At least 500-1000 random samples with replacement should be taken from the results of measurement of the reference samples.Key words: reference interval, resampling method, Microsoft Excel, bootstrap method, biostatistics     

Towards regional scientific integration in Africa? Evidence from co-publications

Regional scientific integration is a critical pathway for the development of an integrated African research area and knowledge-based society. On the African continent, progress in scientific production and integration has remained limited, mostly led by a global or international agenda, and bound to a few top publishing nations. The high-level policy commitments and the accumulated policies and strategies developed and pursued under the various intertwined sub-regional economic groupings have, to date, only diversely contributed to policy alignment and coordination in the area of science, technology, and innovation (STI) across Africa. In this context, this paper provides a first and hence original assessment of the role of region-specific factors in shaping scientific collaboration on the continent. For this purpose, our study builds upon the proximity approach to analyse the determinants of scientific collaboration between African countries, using co-publications data from Thomson Reuters' Web of Science database as a proxy of such collaboration. Our results suggest that the majority of African regional economic communities (RECs) have not yet had a significant effect on scientific co-publication. Nevertheless, some important region-specific factors do seem to be at play, such as a shared ethnical language, membership in the African and Malagasy Council for Higher Education (CAMES), and the presence of a common European partner as a third partner in co-publication. Existing policies aimed at the development of an Africa-wide research area should aim to leverage existing and emerging regional excellence networks and novel coordination models to accelerate the process of scientific integration in Africa.     

Can behavioural biases in choice under novelty explain innovation failures?

This paper proposes a new framework of ‘behavioural innovation economics’ as a synthesis of behavioural economics and innovation economics in the context of choice under novelty. The standard heuristics and biases framework of behavioural economics is applied to map and analyze systematic choice failures in the innovation process by distinguishing between choice under uncertainty and choice under novelty. Behavioural biases that affect choice under novelty are then elaborated. The paper then suggests 10 ways in which choice under novelty is behaviourally hard, rendering innovation subject to characteristic failure along these behavioural dimensions.     

Does dictionary based bilingual retrieval work in a non-normalized index?

Many operational IR indexes are non-normalized, i.e. no lemmatization or stemming techniques, etc. have been employed in indexing. This poses a challenge for dictionary-based cross-language retrieval (CLIR), because translations are mostly lemmas. In this study, we face the challenge of dictionary-based CLIR in a non-normalized index. We test two optional approaches: FCG (Frequent Case Generation) and s-gramming. The idea of FCG is to automatically generate the most frequent inflected forms for a given lemma. FCG has been tested in monolingual retrieval and has been shown to be a good method for inflected retrieval, especially for highly inflected languages. S-gramming is an approximate string matching technique (an extension of n-gramming). The language pairs in our tests were English–Finnish, English–Swedish, Swedish–Finnish and Finnish–Swedish. Both our approaches performed quite well, but the results varied depending on the language pair. S-gramming and FCG performed quite equally in all the other language pairs except Finnish–Swedish, where s-gramming outperformed FCG.     

Financial constraints in innovation projects: When is less more?

This article aims to reconcile the seemingly contradicting arguments put forth in different literatures regarding the role of financial resource constraints as inhibitors or enablers of innovation in organizations. Recognizing that innovative endeavors are regularly carried out through team projects, we examine when, i.e., under what conditions, financial resource constraints enable, rather than inhibit, the performance of innovation teams. Specifically, we propose that the relationship between financial constraints and innovation project performance is moderated by a bounded creativity approach, a team process that leverages the team's domain-relevant skills, an engaging project objective, strong team cohesion, and team potency.