1,720,959 research outputs found
Molecular effects of copper on the reproductive system of mytilus galloprovincialis
This study aims to assess the effects induced by 24 hr exposure to a subtoxic copper concentration on the reproductive system (gonads, spermatozoa, and protamine-like [PL] proteins) of Mytilus galloprovincialis. Inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry indicated accumulation of this metal in gonads, spermatozoa, and PL proteins of exposed mussels. Further, real-time polymerase chain reaction analyses showed altered expression levels of mt10 and PL proteins genes in spermatozoa and gonads, respectively, of exposed mussels. Protamine-like proteins, which represent the main basic component of sperm chromatin of this organism, showed a higher DNA binding affinity and a different DNA binding mode in exposed mussels. Moreover, an increased amount of NaCl was required for the release from sperm nuclei of PL-III, the main PL protein component. Finally, PL proteins extracted from exposed mussels promoted DNA oxidative damage in the presence of H 2 O 2. These results demonstrate that the tolerable copper amount could also affect the properties of PL proteins and determine the negative effects on the reproductive system of this organism. These analyses could be useful to develop quick and efficient chromatin-based genotoxicity tests for pollution biomonitoring programs
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
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
“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
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
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Study of the Evolutionary Role of Nitric Oxide (NO) in the Cephalochordate Amphioxus, “<i>Branchiostoma lanceolatum</i>”
Nitric Oxide (NO) is a gaseous molecule that acts in a wide range of biological processes. NO can be produced by enzymatic and non-enzymatic pathways and, in this scenario, the enzyme Nitric Oxide Synthase (NOS) has a great importance for its exclusive role in de novo synthesis of NO. In the present study, the role of the NO in the embryonic development was investigated in the cephalochordate Branchiostoma lanceolatum (amphioxus) with the purpose of acquiring further knowledge on the ancestral role of animal Nos and the acquisition of new NO functions during evolution. Amphioxus has three different Nos genes (NosA, NosB and NosC) that are not orthologues of the three Nos of mammals (NosI, NosII and NosIII) deriving from an independent duplication occurred in the common ancestor of cephalochordates. The three amphioxus Nos genes showed a different temporal and spatial expression during development and a different susceptibility to be induced after immune stimulation. The study of the promoter regions of these genes can be very useful to identify possible diversities in regulation that can lead those peculiar expression features. In amphioxus larva, NO was mainly detected in the developing nervous system and in the pharyngeal area, before and after the mouth opening. The inhibition of NOS activity, and as consequence the enzymatic NO production, during amphioxus neurulation, resulted in the alteration of pharyngeal structures formation in the larvae, in particular opening of the mouth resulted compromised. Moreover, an alteration in larva locomotion was observed. Further studies will be necessary to reveal the exactly molecular mechanisms and the pathways in which
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NO acts for establishment of the pharyngeal structures and the neuromuscular junctions early in development. For this purpose, a differential transcriptomic analysis of NOS-inhibited embryos was performed but the results are still very preliminary
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
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
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
We 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.
Author-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.</p
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