1,720,972 research outputs found

    Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis

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    The 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

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    “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

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    We 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

    The 140-kilodalton antiangiogenic fragment of thrombospondin-1 binds to basic fibroblast growth factor

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    Thrombospondin-1 (TSP) inhibits the angiogenic activity of basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF). Here we address the hypothesis of a direct interaction between TSP and bFGF. Gel permeation chromatography and cross-linking experiments demonstrated that bFGF binds to TSP in solution. bFGF also bound to immobilized TSP in a solid-phase assay. Binding was dose-dependent, with a Kd in the nanomolar range, and was inhibited by anti-TSP antibodies. The 140-kDa carboxyl-terminal fragment of TSP, but not the 25-kDa heparin-binding fragment, fully retained the bFGF binding capacity. Accordingly, binding was inhibited by monoclonal antibodies directed against this fragment. Heparin completely blocked bFGF binding to TSP and to the 140-kDa fragment. TSP and its 140-kDa fragment inhibited the binding of bFGF to endothelial cells at concentrations (> or = 100 nM) that inhibited endothelial cell proliferation but not motility. Low-affinity binding was inhibited more than high-affinity binding (up to 76 and 41% inhibition, respectively), and the inhibition was reversed by anti-TSP antibodies. Vitronectin and transforming growth factor beta, potentially associated with TSP, did not affect bFGF binding to endothelial cells. Although TSP did not affect the activation of the high-affinity receptors, it reduced the long-term internalization of bFGF. We conclude that TSP binds to bFGF through a domain within its 140-kDa fragment, a mechanism that might affect bFGF interaction with endothelial cells, activity, and association with the extracellular matrix

    Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts

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    We 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

    Author Index

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    Biovailability of VEGF in tumor shed vesicles depends on vesicle burst induced by acidic pH

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    Tumor angiogenesis is regulated by a dynamic crosstalk between tumor cells and the host microenvironment. Because membrane vesicles shed by tumor cells are known to mediate several tumor–host interactions, we determined whether vesicles might also stimulate angiogenesis. Vesicles shed by human ovarian carcinoma cell linesCABAI and A2780 stimulated the motility and invasiveness of endothelial cells in vitro. Enzymelinked immunosorbent assay and Western blot analysis revealed relevant amounts of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and the two matrix metalloproteinases MMP-2 and MMP-9, but not fibroblast growth factor-2, contained in shed vesicles. An A2780 cell– derived clone transfected to overexpress VEGF shed the same amount of vesicles as did a control clone, but contained significantly more VEGF within the vesicles. Despite a greater amount of VEGF in vesicles of the overexpressing clone, vesicles of both clones stimulated endothelial cell motility to comparable levels, suggesting that VEGF was stored within the vesicle and was unavailable. Only following vesicle burst induced by acidic pH (a characteristic of the tumormicroenvironment) was VEGF released, leading to significantly higher stimulation of cell motility. Thus, tumor-shed membrane vesicles carry VEGF and release it in a bioactive form in conditions typical of the tumor microenvironment
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