1,720,990 research outputs found
Are Next-Generation Sequencing Tools Ready for the Cloud?
No full textCloud-based next-generation sequencing (NGS) tools are currently at an early stage. In this Forum article, we provide a clear picture of the current cloud-based NGS solutions and highlight what is still missing, along with future challenges for the achievement of an ecosystem of biotechnology clouds
Unveiling the hidden treasury: Ciita-driven mhc class ii expression in tumor cells to dig up the relevant repertoire of tumor antigens for optimal stimulation of tumor specific cd4+ t helper cells
Full text linkDespite the recent enthusiasm generated by novel immunotherapeutic approaches against cancer based on immune checkpoint inhibitors, it becomes increasingly clear that single immune-based strategies are not sufficient to defeat the various forms and types of tumors. Within this frame, novel vaccination strategies that are based on optimal stimulation of the key cell governing adaptive immunity, the CD4+ T helper cell, will certainly help in constructing more efficient treatments. In this review, we will focus on this aspect, mainly describing our past and recent contributions that, starting with a rather unorthodox approach, have ended up with the proposition of a new idea for making available an unprecedented extended repertoire of tumor antigens, both in quantitative and qualitative terms, to tumor-specific CD4+ T helper cells. Our approach is based on rendering the very same tumor cells antigen presenting cells for their own tumor antigens by gene transfer of CIITA, the major transcriptional coordinator of MHC class II expression discovered in our laboratory. CIITA-driven MHC class II-expressing tumor cells optimally stimulate in vivo tumor specific MHC class II-restricted CD4 T cells generating specific and long lasting protective immunity against the tumor. We will discuss the mechanism underlying protection and elaborate not only on the applicability of this approach for novel vaccination strategies amenable to clinical setting, but also on the consequence of our discoveries on sedimented immunological dogmas that are related to antigen presentation
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
Tumor recognition and acquisition of protecting adaptive anti-tumor immune response in vivo against CIITA-driven MHC class II expressing Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma Cells
No full textBackground: We have previously demonstrated that cells from MHC class II-negative solid tumors can function as surrogate Antigen Presenting Cells (APCs) for their own tumor antigens, provided they optimally express MHC class II (MHC-II) molecules as a function of genetic transfer of the MHC class II transactivator CIITA. CIITA positive tumors became potent stimulators of a protective adaptive antitumor immune response, triggered by CD4+ T helper (Th) cells and mediated by both Th cells and tumor specific CD8+ cytolytic (CTL). Here we extend our approach to Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma (OSCC), the most common malignant neoplasm of the oral cavity for which, despite advances in detection and standard therapeutic approaches, the prognosis is poor due to a high rate of locoregional recurrence and development of distant metastasis.
Methods: Syngeneic C57BL/6 mice were injected subcutaneously (s.c.) with either parental Mouse Oral Cancer 2 parental (MOC2pc) or MOC2-CIITA tumor cells and tumor growth was checked at least twice a week, using a manual caliper. Mice which have rejected MOC2-CIITA tumor cells were challenged s.c. with MOC2pc. The size for the tumor was measured weekly as described above. For Adoptive Cells Transfer (ACT) experiments, mice were injected s.c. MOC2 cells plus total naïve splenocytes, or total immune splenocytes, or immune CD4+ or CD8+ lymphocytes previously isolated from spleens of mice vaccinated with MOC2-CIITA tumor cells and challenged with MOC2pc that showed no tumor growth.
Results: CIITA-driven MHC-II+ MOC2 tumor cells were rejected or strongly retarded in their growth in vivo. When challenged with MOCpc, these animals strongly delayed tumor growth, indicating the acquisition of an anamnestic response. ACT experiments showed that total spleen cells from tumor protected mice, as well as CD8+ and, more importantly, CD4+ spleen cells significantly protected from MOC2pc tumor take, demonstrating the ability of CIITA-transfected tumor cells to stimulate an adaptive immunity based on the triggering of tumor specific Th and CTL cells.
Conclusions: These results validate our vaccination approach also in OSCC emphasizing the importance of the expression of MHC-II molecules driven by CIITA, to render tumor cells surrogate APC for their own tumor antigens in vivo and thus open the way to characterize the specific antigenic peptides valuable for possible novel formulations of anti-tumor vaccines
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