1,721,028 research outputs found
Fast calcium transients in rat peritoneal mast cells are not sufficient to trigger exocytosis
No full textThe calcium concentration, [Ca]i, in single rat peritoneal mast cells was measured by means of the new Ca indicator dye fura-2. Upon stimulation with antigen or compound 48/80, [Ca]i rose for seconds to values greater than 5 microM. These Ca transients did not depend on the presence of extracellular Ca, and they sometimes occurred spontaneously, especially in the presence of exogenous phosphatidylserine. Calcium transients did not necessarily lead to degranulation. Degranulation usually occurred during periods of somewhat elevated [Ca] (0.5-1 microM) following transients but was sometimes observed at [Ca]i less than or equal to 250 nM. We found no evidence that an antigen-induced Ca influx is required for degranulation
The Ca signal from fura-2 loaded mast cells depends strongly on the method of dye-loading
No full textGradual and stepwise changes in the membrane capacitance of rat peritoneal mast cells
No full textThe membrane capacitance of mast cells was monitored under voltage clamp, using sinusoidal excitation and a lock-in amplifier. 2. Degranulation was accompanied by stepwise capacitance increases that presumably represent the fusion of single secretory granules with the cell membrane. Besides capacitance steps, we also observed gradual changes in capacitance that occurred even in the absence of degranulation, were independent of the presence of nucleotides in the pipette, and were steeply dependent on cytoplasmic [Ca2+]. 3. Cytoplasmic Ca2+ at concentrations of 0.3-3 microM stimulated a decline in capacitance, with a dose-response curve suggesting control by the binding of Ca2+ to high-affinity intracellular sites. When maximally activated, this mechanism could lead to a loss of about 6% of the cell membrane capacitance, at an average rate of 0.1-0.2% s-1. 4. At even higher cytoplasmic [Ca2+] (greater than 3 microM), the reverse effect was observed. The capacitance increased gradually by up to 40%, at an average rate of 0.4% s-1. Evidently gradual changes in membrane capacitance can occur by two mechanisms, and both are influenced by cytoplasmic [Ca2+]. 5. Ca2+ frequently stimulated an inward current accompanied by an increase in membrane conductance. 6. The effects described above were observed also when only trace amounts of Ca2+ and chelator were added to the cytosol, and when increases in cytosolic [Ca2+] could have occurred only by endogenous mechanisms. It is suggested that these effects occur also in intact cells during the large [Ca2+] increases known to occur before and during degranulation
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
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
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
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