1,720,958 research outputs found
Pitfalls in the Genetic Identification of Human Remains
Get PDFDNA technology is an irreplaceable tool for the identification of human remains, but the reliability of the ante mortem reference data remains a serious concern. We present here two cases where misleading conclusions could be achieved by using only the genetic profile of the missing person’s father such as reference sample. Nevertheless, when appropriate reference DNA samples (e.g., the maternal samples) became available, certain identifications were achieved as shown by the probability of maternity (> 99.999%). Thus, all these data together show that extra-pair paternity was found by the way, in both cases. Precautions to avoid misleading conclusions are addressed
Widespread septic embolization in injection drug use mitro-aortic infective endocarditis as a remote cause of death
Get PDFInjection drug use-related infective endocarditis (IDU-IE) assumes peculiar epidemiological, pathogenetic, and prognostic characteristics that allow to consider it a distinct nosological entity, as well as a current problem of considerable social weight. Incidence is reasonably underestimated because diagnosis is often accidental in postmortem examination when drug-related death is suspected. In many cases, postmortem toxicological examinations are negative for acute drug abuse, and findings of infective endocarditis became relevant in the explanation of the mechanism of death. Extracardiac involvement of infective endocarditis is rarely reported as fatal. Fragmentation and embolization of bacterial vegetations can be associated with parenchymal infarcts, systemic spread of the infectious process by formation of an abscess. A case of septic shock as a consequence of the constant bacteremia determined by the continuous proliferation and release of bacteria into the circulation is presented in an injection drug user with left-sided endocarditis and widespread septic embolization. Authors reviewed forensic and medical literature and promote epidemiological value of medical and forensic autopsy. Extracardiac involvement of infective endocarditis may represent a remote and alternative cause of death in injection drug users, and an early diagnosis can be relevant for prognosis. Postmortem examination still represents a valuable opportunity of learning for clinicians and improving diagnostic accuracy with injection drug users. A call for changing of attitudes and practice toward autopsy is finally demanded
Fentanyl transdermal patch: The silent new killer?
Get PDFBackground: Transdermal fentanyl patches represent an excellent alternative for the treatment of chronic and cancer-related pain, but can lead to death due to their incorrect use or increasing abuse. Purpose: Present an overview of literature regarding fentanyl patch related fatalities. Methods: Literature research into PubMed database for all types of publications. Search terms were “fentanyl”,“patch” and “death”. Additional publications by manual examination of references of the PubMed results were included. Results and conclusions: To date 29 publications about transdermal fentanyl patch related deaths are available onPubMed and their time span is of 26 years. A total of 674 deaths related to fentanyl were found, 658 associated with transdermal fentanyl patch. Use of patches was more frequently in males (68 %) than in females (32 %) and in the 31–40 and 41–50 decades. The most frequent route of administration was the transdermal route, followed by oral and intravenous route. Cause of death was in 63.5 % of cases drug abuse, followed by accidental death (16.2 %), death unrelated to fentanyl (13.3 %) and suicide (2.8 %). The use of concomitant drugs was reported in 19 of the 29 publications and antidepressant followed by benzodiazepines and ethanol were the most frequent discovered drugs. In conclusion, fentanyl transdermal patch misuse and abuse is a major problem and still need to be completely addressed
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe 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
Get PDF“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
Bortezomib effect of E2F and cyclin family members in human hepatocellular carcinoma cell lines
No full textAIM
To evaluate the effects of the proteasome inhibitor Bortezomib (BZB) on E2Fs and related genes in Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells.
METHODS
The mRNA levels of the E2F family members (pro-proliferative: E2F1-3 and anti-proliferative: E2F4-8) and of their related genes cyclins and cyclin-dependent kinases (cdks) were evaluated in two HCC cell lines following a single BZB administration. mRNA levels of the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) genes were also measured in both cell lines after BZB treatment. The BZB concentration (40 nM) used was chosen to stay well below the maximal amount/cm2 recommended for in vivo application, and two days incubation was chosen as this time point has been found optimal to detect BZB effects in our previous studies. The HCC cell lines, HepG2 and JHH6, were chosen as they display different phenotypes, hepatocyte-like for HepG2 and undifferentiated for JHH6, thus representing an in vitro model of low and high aggressive forms of HCC, respectively. The mRNA levels of the target genes were measured by two-color microarray-based gene expression analysis, performed according to Agilent Technologies protocol and using an Agilent Scan B. For the E2F family members, mRNA levels were quantified by RT-PCR. Using small interfering RNA’s, the effects of E2F8 depletion on cell number was also evaluated.
RESULTS
After BZB treatment, microarray analysis of the undifferentiated JHH6 revealed a significant decrease in the expression of the pro-proliferative E2F member E2F2. Quantitative RT-PCR data were in keeping with the microarray analysis, and showed a significant increase and decrease in E2F8 and E2F2 mRNA levels, respectively. In contrast, BZB treatment of the hepatocyte-like HCC cell line HepG2 had a significant impact on mRNA levels of 5 of the 8 E2F members. In particular, mRNA levels of the pro-proliferative E2F members E2F1, E2F2, and of the anti-proliferative member E2F8, decreased over 80%. Notably, a reduction in E2F8 expression in HepG2 and JHH6 cells following siRNA treatment had no impact on cell proliferation. As observed with JHH6, BZB treatment of HepG2 cells induced a significant increase in mRNA levels of an anti-proliferative E2F member, E2F6 in this case.
As was observed with E2F’s, more dramatic changes in mRNA levels of the E2F related genes cyclins and Cdks and the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) genes were observed after BTZ treatment of HepG2 compared to JHH6 .
CONCLUSION
The differential expression of E2Fs and related genes induced by BZB in diverse HCC cell phenotypes contribute to bortezomib’s mechanism of action in hepatocellular carcinoma
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe 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
Get PDFWe 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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