1,721,019 research outputs found
DRUG LAW ENFORCEMENT, POLICING AND HARM REDUCTION ::ending the stalemate.
Full text linkThe policing of drugs is an intriguing, complex, and contentious domain that brings into sharp focus the multifaceted nature of the police role and has farreaching consequences for health, crime, and justice. While research on drugs policing has historically been surprisingly sparse, fragmented, and underdeveloped, the field has recently become a burgeoning area of academic study, influenced by contemporary trends in policing practices, changes in drug policy, and wider social movements. This book makes a much-needed interdisciplinary and international contribution that engages with established and emerging areas of scholarship, advances cutting-edge debates, and sets an agenda for future directions in drugs policing. Drug Law Enforcement, Policing and Harm Reduction is the first edited collection to devote its attention exclusively to drugs policing. It brings together a range of leading scholars to provide a deep and thorough account of the current state of knowledge. In addition to academic analysis, authors also include serving police officers and policymakers, who have influenced how drugs policing is framed and carried out. Together, the contributors draw on a diverse set of empirical studies and theoretical perspectives, with the thread running throughout the book being the concept of harm reduction policing. With accounts from various countries, localities, and contexts, topics covered include the (in)effectiveness and (un)intended consequences of the war on drugs', attempts to reform drugs policing, and the role of partnerships and policy networks. The broader theme of inequality lies at the heart of this collection. An accessible and compelling read, this book will be of interest to academics and students of criminology, public health, and social policy, especially those researching policing, drug policy, and harm reduction. It also offers valuable insights and practical guidance for professionals working in the drugs field
Antiviral peptide targeting influenza and parainfluenza
No full textRespiratory virus infections, such as those caused by influenza, parainfluenza and
respiratory syncytial virus (hRSV), continue to be a major cause of morbidity and
mortality in both the developed and developing world. Currently, the main means of
control of influenza virus infection is vaccination, which requires advanced knowledge
of the strain that will be prevalent each year. Alternative strategies involve the use of
anti-viral drugs, which function primarily as a prophylactic. Currently, there are five
main drugs available against influenza, the adamantanes (amantadine and rimantidine)
and the neuraminidase inhibitors (oseltamivir, zanamivir and peramivir). However,
major problems exist with antivirals, notably the development of drug resistance. This
means that new drugs are urgently required that also satisfy the need to intervene at
specific phases of the infection. This thesis describes the development of a peptide
with anti-influenza virus activity (Flupep), from which a library of closely related
peptides were synthesised, with the aim of optimising antiviral efficacy.
Peptides were tested in vitro using a plaque reduction assay on cultured cell lines,
Vero and MDCK for parainfluenza and influenza respectively. Two strains of
influenza and two of parainfluenza were used, covering the main subtypes that infect
humans: Influenza A, Influenza B, PIV2 and PIV3. The plaque assay involved mixing
a fixed dose of virus with dilutions of peptide and infecting the cultured cells,
followed by incubation for between 3 and 14 days. The cells were then fixed, stained
and plaques counted as a measure of viral infectivity.
Previous work had shown that Flupep both interacts with haemagglutinin and is an
antagonist of inflammatory cytokines. As a possible explanation for antiviral activity,
binding affinity of the peptide to haemagglutinin was measured utilising enzyme
linked immunosorbent assays. However, significant binding was not detected,
suggesting non-specific binding and anti-inflammatory potential are more important
routes for antiviral activity.
Peptides which demonstrated greater than 90% plaque knockdown in vitro were
evaluated in vivo. Anaesthetised mice were infected with influenza A and administered
with the peptide concurrently. Following infection, body weights were measured daily
and clinical signs, such as shortness of breath, quality of coat and posture, were
monitored as indicators of overall health. Most mice were culled on the seventh day
post-infection and lung viral titres were determined using a plaque assay. Two
peptides were identified with high efficacy against influenza. These peptides, when
used in vivo, improved clinical signs of and dramatically reduced levels of infectious
virus in the lungs by 7 days post infection.
The peptide with highest efficacy was PEGylated and subsequently shown to possess
therapeutic potential. Intranasal administration of the PEG-peptide to anaesthetised
mice, on the two days subsequent to infection with influenza A, revealed a 17-fold fall
in lung viral titres by the fourth day post-infection. Overall, Flupep demonstrates great
potential as a future therapeutic agent for treatment of Influenza and potentially
Parainfluenza
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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