1,720,957 research outputs found
Amplification and Detection of Minuscule Amounts of Misfolded Prion Protein by Using the Real-Time Quaking-Induced Conversion
No full textMolecular and Clinical Aspects of Protein Aggregation Assays in Neurodegenerative Diseases
No full text
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
Seeding variability of different alpha-synuclein strains
No full textIn the present work, we were interested in applying the Real-time quaking-induced conversion
(RT-QuIC) for the detection of the seeding activity of Dementia with Lewy bodies
(DLB) and Parkinson’s disease (PD) brain derived α-synuclein seeds. and analyzing
the structure and morphology of the α-synuclein aggregates generated via RTQuIC.
A different seeding and conversion ability support the existence of α-synuclein
conformational variants in both α-synucleinopathies.
To this aim, brain materials derived from neuropathologically well-characterised cases
with DLB, PD and controls have been processed by filtration and centrifugation steps to
obtain an α-synuclein seeding competent fraction, deployed as seed for the RT-QuIC.
Biochemical and morphological analyses of RT-QuIC products were conducted by western
blot, dot blot analysis, Raman spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy and transmission
electron microscopy analyses. We observed a different seeding activity between
DLB and PD, which resulted in the generation of a PK-resistant and fibrillary α-
synuclein species in DLB seeded reactions, while PD and control seeds failed in the
conversion of wild type α-synuclein substrate.
The structural variance between DLB and PD seeding kinetics and products indicated
the existence of different α-synuclein stains in these groups. Our study contributes to the
understanding of the clinical heterogeneity observed among α-synucleinoèpathies and
opens news avenues for the future development of strain-specific therapies.
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
α-Synuclein conformers reveal link to clinical heterogeneity of α-synucleinopathies
No full textAbstract
α-Synucleinopathies, such as Parkinson’s disease (PD), dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) and multiple system atrophy, are a class of neurodegenerative diseases exhibiting intracellular inclusions of misfolded α-synuclein (αSyn), referred to as Lewy bodies or oligodendroglial cytoplasmic inclusions (Papp–Lantos bodies). Even though the specific cellular distribution of aggregated αSyn differs in PD and DLB patients, both groups show a significant pathological overlap, raising the discussion of whether PD and DLB are the same or different diseases. Besides clinical investigation, we will focus in addition on methodologies, such as protein seeding assays (real-time quaking-induced conversion), to discriminate between different types of α-synucleinopathies. This approach relies on the seeding conversion properties of misfolded αSyn, supporting the hypothesis that different conformers of misfolded αSyn may occur in different types of α-synucleinopathies. Understanding the pathological processes influencing the disease progression and phenotype, provoked by different αSyn conformers, will be important for a personalized medical treatment in future.Open-Access-Publikationsfonds 202
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