NILDE: developing a new generation tool for document delivery

This paper presents the most recent progress and implementation of the NILDE (Network Inter-Library Document Exchange) system, which was developed by the National Research Council (CNR) Bologna Research Area Library. NILDE is a web based document delivery (DD) software for libraries and end-users. It allows libraries to manage the entire workflow of DD activities, both borrowing and lending, through the provision of synthetic and analytical statistics, DD performance indicators “fill-rate” and “turn-around time”, and support for secure electronic delivery. As new challenges in electronic publishing (such as increases in the price of journals, cross-access and licensing issues) have led libraries from all over the world to organize in consortia, the rise in NILDE users has allowed the building of a cooperation network to promote resource sharing based on a degree of standard quality of service and fair behaviour, and to establish an efficient communication channel among libraries, consortia and publishers. It has been proved that, in order to accomplish effective resource sharing, libraries should be willing to fulfil document delivery on a reciprocal basis, both requesting and providing documents. In particular, each library should make its best effort to expose and update its holdings by actively participating in collective national OPACs or in Italian meta-OPACs. It has been shown how, by adhering to these principles, libraries start up a virtuous cycle within the NILDE network, increasing its own value. As a result, the growth rate of numbers of NILDE libraries has accelerated, showing that the above said resource sharing policy is a real building block for success. In order to guarantee scalability and high performance operations, the overall system architecture has been rethought, ending up in the design of a brand new piece of software. New technologies, referred to as Web 2.0, have been incorporated into NILDE, making it an even more user-oriented and friendly tool for document delivery and scholar work

SENTINEL NODE IN DIFFERENTIATED THYROID CANCER: COMPARISON BETWEEN VITAL-DYE PATENT BLUE, LYMPHOSCINTIGRAPHY AND COMBINED TECHNIQUE

Obiettivo dello studio : aim of the study is to evaluate the role of sentinel node (SN) identification in the treatment of differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC). We also aim to assess feasibility and reproducibility of the SN techniques with vital-dye patent blue, radiotracer and combined technique Materiali e metodi : the study is multicentric, prospective, randomized three arms open. We expect to enroll 120 patients in 2 years. Patients have to be preoperative diagnosis of DTC. Exclusion criteria are previous cervical surgery, medullary cancer, nodes metastasis and multifocal tumor. All patients undergo total thyroidectomy, SN identification and central compartment (CC) dissection: in Arm A SN identification is obtained with vital-dye Patent blue technique, in Arm B with lymphoscintigraphy and in Arm C with combined technique. Specimen histopathology provides information about the characteristics of primary tumor, SN and the remaining nodes with specific immuno-histochemistry protocols Principali risultati : so far we enrolled 42 patients Arm A (26 pts): 18 patients (69.2%) had negative SN and nonSN; 1 (3.8%) with negative SN had micrometastasis in 2 nodes of CC; 2 (7.6%) with macrometastasis in the SN had metastatic nodes in the CC and 1 (3.8%) had macrometastasis in the SN with no other positive nodes. In 4 (15.2%) patients identification of the SN wasn't possible and there was no evidence of metastasis in all nodes removed Arm B: 2 patients (100%) had negative SN and nonSN Arm C (14 pts): 4 patients (28.6%) had negative SN and nonSN; 1 (7.1%) with negative SN had macrometastasis in 2 nodes; 4 (28.6%) with macrometastasis in the SN had metastatic nodes in the CC and 1 (7.1%) had macrometastasis in the SN with no other positive nodes. In 4 (28.6%) patients identification of the SN wasn't possible and in 3 of them there was no evidence of metastasis Conclusioni : so far the data we gathered are too few to make statistic significant conclusions. Once adequate scientific evidence is available, detection of the SN could become a routine procedure in DTC treatment, avoiding central compartment dissection in patients with negative SN. The achievement of a standard protocol of SN detection remains an important issue to solve, although both techniques had shown a good rate of detection of the SN, several studies report that the combined method could reduce false negatives and increase detection rates of SN metastase

Cutaneous leishmaniosis in a dog vaccinated with LiESP/QA-21: effective or defective vaccine-related immune surveillance? A case report

ABSTRACT: Leishmania, an intracellular protozoan parasite, is endemic, widespread and represents a public health problem in most countries of the Mediterranean basin as it is implicated in a wide spectrum of diseases both in humans and animals. Vaccination of canines remains the best control strategy to counteract the progression of active infection for canine disease in areas of the world where transmission to humans is primarily zoonotic. This case report describes the history of a four-year-old dog vaccinated against canine leishmaniosis that was presented to a private clinic for the onset of a nodular skin lesion. Besides normal haematological and biochemical analyses, the histopathological examination of the removed skin lesion revealed the presence of Leishmania amastigotes. The presence of the protozoa in the skin lesion of a vaccinated dog is discussed

NILDE: developing a new generation tool for document delivery in Italy

This paper presents the most recent progress and implementation of the NILDE (Network Inter-Library Document Exchange) system, a web based document delivery (DD) software for libraries and end-users. NILDE allows libraries to manage the entire workflow of DD activities, both borrowing and lending, through the provision of synthetic and analytical statistics, DD performance indicators such as "fill-rate" and "turn-around time", and support for secure electronic delivery. New technologies, referred to as Web 2.0, have been incorporated into NILDE, making it an even more user-oriented and friendly tool for document delivery and scholar work