1,721,189 research outputs found
Fatigue in multiple sclerosis: Does the functional or structural damage prevail?
No full textFatigue in multiple sclerosis (MS) is a highly invalidating symptom, lacking efficacious drugs. This topical review aims at assessing the signs in the literature of functional versus structural damage prevalence at the origin of MS fatigue by focusing on papers that assessed the two counterparts in the same patients, paying attention that the fatigue levels do not correlate with clinical severity. We summarize and discuss evidence of increased levels of fatigue occurring together with the alterations of functional connectivity at multiple levels, in the absence of any relationship with lesion load and local atrophy of the involved structures. Specifically, neuronal communication mainly altered in the corticomuscular synchronizations, between hemispheric homologs and in the resting-state networks involved in emotion (cingulate cortex) and effort-reward balance (striatum and inferior parietal lobule). Finally, given the functional prevalence in neuronal network alterations at the origin of fatigue in MS, we highlight the relevance of developing treatments aiming at compensating the neuronal electric communication dysfunctions
ADAR Therapeutics as a New Tool for Personalized Medicine
Full text linkIn the field of RNA therapy, innovative approaches based on adenosine deaminases acting on RNA (ADAR)-mediated site-directed RNA editing (SDRE) have been established, providing an exciting opportunity for RNA therapeutics. ADAR1 and ADAR2 enzymes are accountable for the predominant form of RNA editing in humans, which involves the hydrolytic deamination of adenosine (A) to inosine (I). This inosine is subsequently interpreted as guanosine (G) by the translational and splicing machinery because of their structural similarity. Intriguingly, the novel SDRE system leverages this recoding ability of ADAR proteins to correct the pathogenic G to A nucleotide mutations through a short, engineered guide RNA (gRNA). Thus, ADAR-mediated SDRE is emerging as a powerful tool to manipulate the genetic information at the RNA level and correct disease-causing mutations without causing damage to the genome. Further it is emerging as a new instrument for personalized medicine, since treatments can be tailored to the unique genetic mutations present in an individual patient. In this short review, we aimed to described the main approached bases on ADARs activity, highlighting their advantages and disadvantages
Reproducibility, precision and trueness of X-Ray fluorescence data for mineralogical and/or petrographic purposes
No full textChemical data obtained by using XRF methodology appears to be suitable to solve many practical problems in the environment and cultural heritage fields. The aim of this research was to maximize the measurement sensitivity for the determination of major, minor and some trace chemical elements on building materials of historical and archaeological interest and to assess reproducibility, precision and trueness of measurement. X-ray fluorescence analysis of major and minor elements (Na, Mg, Al, Si, P, K, Ca, Ti, Mn, Fe) and of some traces (Nb, Zr, Y, Sr, Rb, Ce, Ba, La, Ni, Cr, V, Co) was carried out using fused glass discs and pressed powder pellets, respectively. The analytical method has been calibrated by using fifty-two international rock standards, six chemicals, two inter-laboratory standards and twenty-two homemade samples, prepared by mixing some standard materials. With some exceptions, results are in good or excellent agreement with the recommended values
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
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