1,720,955 research outputs found
NGF and BDNF Alterations by Prenatal Alcohol Exposure
No full textBACKGROUND:
It is now widely established the devastating effects of prenatal alcohol exposure on the embryo and fetus development causing marked cognitive and neurobiological deficits in the newborns. The negative effects of the gestational alcohol use have been well documented and known for some time. However, also the subtle role of alcohol consumption by fathers prior to mating is drawing special attention.
OBJECTIVE:
Both paternal and maternal alcohol exposure have been shown to affect the neurotrophins' signalling pathways in the brain and in target organs of ethanol intoxication. Neurotrophins, in particular nerve growth factor (NGF) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), are molecules playing a pivotal role in the survival, development and function of the peripheral and central nervous systems but also in the pathogenesis of developmental defects caused by alcohol exposure.
METHODS:
New researches from the available literature and experimental data from our laboratory are presented in this review to offer the most recent findings regarding the effects of maternal and paternal prenatal ethanol exposure especially on the neurotrophins' signalling pathways.
RESULTS:
NGF and BDNF changes play a subtle role in short- and long-lasting effects of alcohol in ethanol target tissues, including neuronal cell death and severe cognitive and physiological deficits in the newborns.
CONCLUSIONS:
The review suggests a possible therapeutic intervention based on the use of specific molecules with antioxidant properties in order to induce a potential prevention of the harmful effects of the paternal and/or maternal alcohol exposure
Ethanol consumption and innate neuroimmunity
No full textEmerging researches from human and animal models have shown the role of ethanol in innate immune system modulation, particularly in the central nervous system. The activation of receptors of the innate immunity, Toll-like receptors and nucleotide- binding oligomerization domain-like (NOD-like) receptors, triggers the signaling pathways that bring to the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines, which, in turn, provokes neuroinflammation and neural damage. The neuroimmune system response to ethanol intake, in specific brain regions such as amygdala, hippocampus and frontal cortex, is involved in addiction and in behavioural deficits observed in alcoholism. In murine models, the knockout for Toll-like or NODlike receptors abolishes most of the effects of ethanol on the immune system and preserves these mice from neural damage, neuroinflammation and alcohol dependence. Molecular targeting of immune system pathways is a new and promising area of research for the discovery of new biomarkers for neuroinflammation and for the development of novel pharmacotherapies in order to treat neurological and behavioural consequences of ethanol addiction. © Bulgarian Society for Cell Biolog
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
Author-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.
No full textAuthor-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.</p
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