1,720,966 research outputs found
ADAPTING DURUM WHEAT TO CLIMATE CHANGES: IDENTIFICATION OF NEW TARGETS FOR DROUGHT RESISTANCE VARIABILITY
No full textCase report: Sacral agenesis in two boxer dogs: clinical presentation, diagnostic investigations, and outcome
Full text linkTwo boxer dogs from the same litter were presented at 3 months of age for urinary and fecal incontinence. Both dogs had an abnormal tail consisting of a small stump, an atonic anal sphincter, and absent perineal reflex and sensation. Neurological evaluation was indicative of a lesion of the cauda equina or sacral spinal cord. Radiology and CT scan of the spine displayed similar findings in the two dogs that were indicative of sacral agenesis. Indeed, they had 6 lumbar vertebrae followed by a lumbosacral transitional vertebra, lacking a complete spinous process, and a hypoplastic vertebra carrying 2 hypoplastic sacral transverse processes as the only remnant of the sacral bone. Caudal vertebrae were absent in one of the dogs. On MRI, one dog had a dural sac occupying the entire spinal canal and ending in a subfascial fat structure. In the other dog, the dural sac finished in an extracanalar, subfascial, well-defined cystic structure, communicating with the subarachnoid space, and consistent with a meningocele. Sacral agenesis—that is the partial or complete absence of the sacral bones—is a neural tube defect occasionally reported in humans with spina bifida occulta. Sacral agenesis has been described in human and veterinary medicine in association with conditions such as caudal regression syndrome, perosomus elumbis, and Currarino syndrome. These neural tube defects are caused by genetic and/or environmental factors. Despite thorough genetic investigation, no candidate variants in genes with known functional impact on bone development or sacral development could be found in the affected dogs. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first report describing similar sacral agenesis in two related boxer dogs
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
From landraces to haplotypes, exploiting a genomic and phenomic approach to identify heat tolerant genotypes within durum wheat landraces
No full textDry and hot climates severely impact wheat yields, necessitating the development of innovative solutions to accelerate the breeding and selection of more adaptable durum wheat genotypes. The aim of this study was to identify new wheat ecotypes that can bridge the gap between commercial varieties and adaptability to ongoing climate change. In this study, advanced genomic and phenomic techniques were combined to characterize a set of durum wheat landraces derived from single seed descent (SSD). This approach enabled the identification of novel variability in the TdHsp26-A1 and -B1 genes. As a result, 38 durum wheat genotypes were analyzed using targeted enrichment PCR, leading to the identification of 17 novel haplotype combinations with SNPs in the TdHsp26 genes. The response of these SSD haplotypes to heat stress was characterized at both the seedling and tillering growth stages. Phenotypic analysis of contrasting genotypes led to the selection of two distinct genotypes: SSD69 and SSD397. During heat stress, SSD69 exhibited altered accumulation of H2O2 and MDA content under both growth conditions, providing new insights into the oxidative response to heat stress. Additionally, this work identifies phenotypic traits that are suitable for detecting differences between variants. The geographic distribution of the different alleles aligned with the spread of durum wheat from its center of origin
Suspected “stiff dog syndrome” in a Maltese dog
Full text linkA Maltese dog was presented with a stiff gait, secondary to muscle hypertonicity, affecting the axial and proximal appendicular muscles, which had progressively worsened over the last 4 years, associated with episodes of muscle spasms. Neuroanatomical localization was upper motor neuron (UMN) or generalized neuromuscular system. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) analysis was normal. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain and cervical spinal cord was performed and showed hypoplasia of the dorsal part of the left hippocampus, unchanged compared to the MRI performed 4 years earlier, and mild C6–C7 disk extrusion, with no evidence of compression of the spinal cord. Conscious electromyography showed continuous motor unit action potentials (MUAPs) in agonist and antagonist muscles. Indirect immunofluorescence (IFT) detected the presence of antibodies against glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD). These findings were consistent with a human condition called “Stiff Person Syndrome” (SPS). A condition similar to SPS has only been described once before in a Beagle dog (“Stiff Dog Syndrome”). A therapeutic protocol based on human guidelines for SPS was initiated with a partial improvement. “Stiff Dog Syndrome” (SDS) is a possible cause of muscle hypertonicity and spasms in dogs
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
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