1,721,052 research outputs found
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: patho-physiology, current methods of treatment and the potential for simvastatin in disease management
No full textBackground. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a debilitating disease, causing severe and irreversible respiratory problems, affecting millions of people worldwide. Consequently, in recent years, research has focused on investigating new therapeutic approaches for the treatment of this pathology. Some drug classes, such as ACE inhibitors, PDE4 inhibitors and statins have demonstrated to have anti-inflammatory properties and an effect in improving COPD. Specifically, simvastatin (SV) has shown to be effective in reducing COPD morbidity and mortality.
Methods. For the SV transport study, Calu-3 cell monolayers were grown on a liquid covered culture method using 0.33 cm2 Transwell supports (0.4 μm pore size). 100μM SV solution was placed alternatively in the apical or in the basolateral chamber, and samples were collected in the other compartment every hour for 4 hours. For the effect of SV on mucus inhibition study, Calu-3 cell monolayers were grown using an air interface culture model [3]. Samples for microscope analysis were collected at day 2, 7, 11 and 14, respectively. Each sample was fixed with paraformaldheyde (4%), stained with alcian blue and placed onto a glass slide; photos of the stained cell surface were taken and mucus layer quantified as RGBB ratio.
Results: Simvastatin was transported in both the apical to basal (1.78% ± 0.09%) and basal to apical directions (1.00% ± 0.22%) suggesting a rational for delivery to the lung. Analysis of the microscopy images showed that chronic administration of simvastatin for 14 days caused a significant inhibition in mucus production.
Conclusion: Simvastatin can penetrate by passive diffusion into Calu-3 monolayer. Also, the administration of simvastatin at chronic doses inhibits mucus production. These preliminary findings suggest that local delivery to simvastatin directly to the lung may have a therapeutic effect on mucus reduction and consequently be used for COPD treatmen
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
Towards the Bioequivalence of Pressurised Metered Dose Inhalers 2. Aerodynamically equivalent particles (with and without glycerol) exhibit different biopharmaceutical profiles in vitro
No full textVariations 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
Author-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.
No full textAuthor-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.</p
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