1,720,956 research outputs found
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe 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
Get PDF“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
Development of novel implantable hydrogels and aerogels for localised cancer treatment
Get PDFPancreatic and bladder cancers are common types of cancer and related to a considerable rate of morbidity and mortality if not managed properly. The adjuvant chemotherapy following the surgical tumour resection is required for both cancer types in order to eliminate any remaining malignant cells to prevent cancer metastasis. Hydrogels and aerogels are promising strategies that can be designed and used to improve the drug delivery into the pancreas and bladder. In the first study, caffeine-loaded agar hydrogels, pre- and post-loaded aerogels were developed as potential implantable drug delivery systems. Several hydrogel and aerogel formulations were prepared by either sol-gel or post-loading methods using increasing concentrations of agar polymer and caffeine as model drug. These two variables were investigated for their impacts on hydrogels and aerogels physical properties, drug content homogeneity and release profiles to determine the optimized formulations. Irinotecan Hydrochloride (IRN)-loaded agar hydrogels pre- and post-loaded aerogel formulations were developed using the optimized formulations as implantable drug delivery systems to improve IRN delivery to the tumour resection sites and increase their efficacy as post-surgical localised treatment for pancreatic cancer. The formulations variables based on the amount of agar and IRN were investigated for their effects on the hydrogels and aerogels physical properties, drug content distribution and release profiles, as well as their cytotoxicity using different pancreatic cancer cell lines. The IRN-loaded hydrogels and aerogels showed stronger mechanical strength and lower levels of hydrogel adhesion, as well as IRN distribution for both formulations with higher agar concentration, while better IRN distribution and more flexible aerogels were associated with lower agar concentration. The in vitro release of IRN from all hydrogel and aerogel formulations demonstrated concentration dependent prolonged release over 4 days. The
hydrogels and preloaded aerogels showed faster sustained release rate as the agar concentration decreased due to the increased porosity, while post-loaded aerogels demonstrated slower release profiles as IRN loading rate decreased resulted from lower level of drug distribution. The
cytotoxicity assay of IRN pre- and post-loaded agar aerogels against MIA PaCa-2 cells demonstrated more time and concentration dependent reduced cell viability compared to their cytotoxic effect against Panc-1 cells. In the second study, the development of Infigratinib (INF)-loaded HEC and HPMC hydrogels was established to possibly enhance the INF delivery to the bladder through intravesical administration and potentially increase its efficacy as localised treatment of non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC). Based on varying concentrations of HEC and HPMC polymers, as well as INF loading, several hydrogel formulations were prepared by sol-gel method. The effects of these varying concentrations on both sets of hydrogels rheological properties, drug content distribution and release profiles were assessed. The hydrogels with lower HEC and HPMC concentrations, as well as INF loading demonstrated reduced viscosity, suitable shear thinning behaviour making them easier to deliver through a catheter based the rheological analysis and injectability assessment. They showed acceptable drug content distribution. The INF-loaded
HEC hydrogels showed better concentration dependent mucoadhesive features compared to the INF-loaded HPMC hydrogels. The release of INF from the HEC and HPMC hydrogels showed a rapid ‘burst’ release associated with the low HEC and HPMC concentrations, as well as INF
loading over 24 hours, while as the HEC and HPMC concentrations and INF loading increased the percent release of INF from the hydrogels reduces. The cytotoxicity of the optimised INFloaded HEC hydrogel against FGFR mutant and non-mutant cancer cells demonstrated a similar cytotoxic effect to the free INF and selectively inhibited FGFR mutant cancer cells proliferation. Overall, the results demonstrate that the IRN-loaded agar hydrogels and aerogels have the potential to be effective for the post-operative localised treatment of pancreatic cancer. The targeted therapy using INF-loaded HEC hydrogel through intravesical administration is promising for NMIBC cases associated with FGFR mutations
Development of nanostructured hydrogel for spatial and temporal controlled release of active compounds
Get PDFL’utilisation de nanovecteurs pour la livraison contrôlée de principes actifs est un concept
commun de nous jours. Les systèmes de livraison actuels présentent encore cependant des
limites au niveau du taux de relargage des principes actifs ainsi que de la stabilité des
transporteurs. Les systèmes composés à la fois de nanovecteurs (liposomes, microgels et
nanogels) et d’hydrogels peuvent cependant permettre de résoudre ces problèmes. Dans cette
étude, nous avons développé un système de livraison contrôlé se basant sur l’incorporation
d’un nanovecteur dans une matrice hydrogel dans le but de combler les lacunes des systèmes
se basant sur un vecteur uniquement. Une telle combinaison pourrait permettre un contrôle
accru du relargage par stabilisation réciproque. Plus spécifiquement, nous avons développé un
hydrogel structuré intégrant des liposomes, microgels et nanogels séparément chargés en
principes actifs modèles potentiellement relargués de manière contrôlé. Ce contrôle a été
obtenu par la modification de différents paramètres tels que la température ainsi que la
composition et la concentration en nanovecteurs. Nous avons comparé la capacité de
chargement et la cinétique de relargage de la sulforhodamine B et de la rhodamine 6G en
utilisant des liposomes de DOPC et DPPC à différents ratios, des nanogels de chitosan/acide
hyaluronique et des microgels de N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAM) à différents ratios d’acide
méthacrylique, incorporés dans un hydrogel modèle d’acrylamide. Les liposomes présentaient
des capacités de chargement modérés avec un relargage prolongé sur plus de dix jours alors
que les nanogels présentaient des capacités de chargement plus élevées mais une cinétique de
relargage plus rapide avec un épuisement de la cargaison en deux jours. Comparativement, les
microgels relarguaient complétement leur contenu en un jour. Malgré une cinétique de
relargage plus rapide, les microgels ont démontré la possibilité de contrôler finement le
chargement en principe actif. Ce contrôle peut être atteint par la modification des propriétés
structurelles ou en changeant le milieu d’incubation, comme l’a montré la corrélation avec les
isothermes de Langmuir. Chaque système développé a démontré un potentiel contrôle du taux
de relargage, ce qui en fait des candidats pour des investigations futures.Controlled delivery of active compounds using nanoscale carriers is nowadays a
common concept, but there are still limitations in current delivery systems related to active
compound release rate and nanocarriers stability. To address these limitations, delivery
systems can be made to incorporate both nanocarriers (liposomes, microgels and nanogels)
and hydrogels. In this study, we have developed controlled delivery systems by combining
different carriers in order to overcome deficiencies observed in systems using only one type of
carrier. Such a combination could lead to an enhanced controlled release delivery system
through synergistic stabilization. More specifically, we created a structured hydrogel
embedded with either liposomes, microgels, or nanogels, each loaded with model active
compounds that would be released in a controlled fashion by manipulating
the temperature of release medium and nanocarriers composition and concentration. We
compared drug loading and release kinetics of sulforhodamine B from liposomes (composed
of DOPC and DPPC at different ratios) and nanogels (chitosan/hyaluronic acid) embedded in
acrylamide hydrogels. We also compared drug loading and release kinetics of rhodamine 6G
from microgels of N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAM) with different ratios of methacrylic acid
embedded in acrylamide hydrogel. Liposomes demonstrated a moderate drug loading capacity
with sustained release for over ten days, while nanogels showed high drug loading but faster
release kinetics, exhausting their contents within two days. Comparatively, microgels
completely released their content within a day. Despite their faster release kinetics, microgels
have shown the capacity to be finely tuned for efficient drug loading. The Langmuir isotherms
indicated that it can be achieved by altering their structural properties or by changing their
incubation medium. Each developed system has demonstrated a potential in controlling the
release rate, which makes them candidates for further investigations in the future
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe 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
Development of nanostructured hydrogel for spatial and temporal controlled release of active compounds
Get PDFL’utilisation de nanovecteurs pour la livraison contrôlée de principes actifs est un concept
commun de nous jours. Les systèmes de livraison actuels présentent encore cependant des
limites au niveau du taux de relargage des principes actifs ainsi que de la stabilité des
transporteurs. Les systèmes composés à la fois de nanovecteurs (liposomes, microgels et
nanogels) et d’hydrogels peuvent cependant permettre de résoudre ces problèmes. Dans cette
étude, nous avons développé un système de livraison contrôlé se basant sur l’incorporation
d’un nanovecteur dans une matrice hydrogel dans le but de combler les lacunes des systèmes
se basant sur un vecteur uniquement. Une telle combinaison pourrait permettre un contrôle
accru du relargage par stabilisation réciproque. Plus spécifiquement, nous avons développé un
hydrogel structuré intégrant des liposomes, microgels et nanogels séparément chargés en
principes actifs modèles potentiellement relargués de manière contrôlé. Ce contrôle a été
obtenu par la modification de différents paramètres tels que la température ainsi que la
composition et la concentration en nanovecteurs. Nous avons comparé la capacité de
chargement et la cinétique de relargage de la sulforhodamine B et de la rhodamine 6G en
utilisant des liposomes de DOPC et DPPC à différents ratios, des nanogels de chitosan/acide
hyaluronique et des microgels de N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAM) à différents ratios d’acide
méthacrylique, incorporés dans un hydrogel modèle d’acrylamide. Les liposomes présentaient
des capacités de chargement modérés avec un relargage prolongé sur plus de dix jours alors
que les nanogels présentaient des capacités de chargement plus élevées mais une cinétique de
relargage plus rapide avec un épuisement de la cargaison en deux jours. Comparativement, les
microgels relarguaient complétement leur contenu en un jour. Malgré une cinétique de
relargage plus rapide, les microgels ont démontré la possibilité de contrôler finement le
chargement en principe actif. Ce contrôle peut être atteint par la modification des propriétés
structurelles ou en changeant le milieu d’incubation, comme l’a montré la corrélation avec les
isothermes de Langmuir. Chaque système développé a démontré un potentiel contrôle du taux
de relargage, ce qui en fait des candidats pour des investigations futures.Controlled delivery of active compounds using nanoscale carriers is nowadays a
common concept, but there are still limitations in current delivery systems related to active
compound release rate and nanocarriers stability. To address these limitations, delivery
systems can be made to incorporate both nanocarriers (liposomes, microgels and nanogels)
and hydrogels. In this study, we have developed controlled delivery systems by combining
different carriers in order to overcome deficiencies observed in systems using only one type of
carrier. Such a combination could lead to an enhanced controlled release delivery system
through synergistic stabilization. More specifically, we created a structured hydrogel
embedded with either liposomes, microgels, or nanogels, each loaded with model active
compounds that would be released in a controlled fashion by manipulating
the temperature of release medium and nanocarriers composition and concentration. We
compared drug loading and release kinetics of sulforhodamine B from liposomes (composed
of DOPC and DPPC at different ratios) and nanogels (chitosan/hyaluronic acid) embedded in
acrylamide hydrogels. We also compared drug loading and release kinetics of rhodamine 6G
from microgels of N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAM) with different ratios of methacrylic acid
embedded in acrylamide hydrogel. Liposomes demonstrated a moderate drug loading capacity
with sustained release for over ten days, while nanogels showed high drug loading but faster
release kinetics, exhausting their contents within two days. Comparatively, microgels
completely released their content within a day. Despite their faster release kinetics, microgels
have shown the capacity to be finely tuned for efficient drug loading. The Langmuir isotherms
indicated that it can be achieved by altering their structural properties or by changing their
incubation medium. Each developed system has demonstrated a potential in controlling the
release rate, which makes them candidates for further investigations in the future
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe 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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