1,720,957 research outputs found
The retinal pigment epithelial cells modulate phagolysosome activation in macrophages through neuropeptides, a-MSH and NPY
Full text linkOBJECTIVE: The main function of the human eye is to detect light, motion, and color from our surroundings. This information is then processed and translated in the brain as vision. However, what is less known about the eye is its ability to regulate immune function. It is this ocular immune privilege that maintains the eye's ability collect visual information. The degeneration of immune privilege causes inflammation, which can cause damage to the eye, an increased susceptibility of eye disorders such as autoimmune uveitis (inflammation of the uvea), and may lead to vision impairment. Research in ocular immune privilege can open up potential clinical applications for maladies such as uveitis, septic shock, hypersensitivity, multiple sclerosis and allograft survival. Previous research has shown the importance of the retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells for maintenance of ocular immune privilege, and has identified the use of neuropeptides to suppress inflammatory responses in macrophages. This project aims to study the role and mechanism of the RPE cells in phagolysosome activation in macrophages that mediate inflammation.
METHODS: Posterior eyecups were prepared from eyes of healthy, EAU immunized, or post-EAU mice. Eyecups, which consisted of the sclera, choroid, and a single layer of RPE, were cultured in serum-free media (SFM). During a 24-hour incubation period, peritoneal macrophages were collected intraperitoneal (IP) and cultured. Conditioned media (CM) was applied to the collected macrophages along with pHrodo-red opsonized bioparticles and were incubated for 24-hours in 37°C. After incubation, cells were examined by fluorescent microscopy for phagolysosome activation. Also, this was also done with RPE CM depleted of α-MSH, NPY, and α-MSH + NPY. A viability assay was performed on macrophages treated with depleted RPE CM to investigate the possibility that removing the neuropeptides will induce cell death. To examine the cytokines involved in RPE CM--from healthy, EAU and post-EAU mice--modulation of phagolysosome activation, a mouse cytokine array was performed that assessed for twenty different mouse cytokines.
RESULTS: Results from fluorescent microscopy showed that healthy RPE CM caused significant suppression of phagolysosome activity in macrophages. The RPE CM depleted of α-MSH, NPY, and α-MSH + NPY showed a significant suppression of phagolysosome activity in macrophages. However, these results may have been misrepresented as the macrophages treated with depleted RPE CM were non-viable. RPE CM from EAU mice showed the inability to down-regulate phagolysosome activity while RPE CM from post-EAU mice recovered its ability to down-regulate phagolysosome activity. The mouse cytokine array of RPE CM from healthy, EAU and post-EAU mice identified keratinocyte-derived cytokine (KC), high concentrations of interleukin-6 (IL-6), trace amounts of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and no other pro or anti-inflammatory cytokines.
CONCLUSIONS: Healthy RPE cells suppress phagolysosome activation in activated macrophages. In contrast, RPE cells from mice with active EAU lose its ability to regulate phagolysosome activation, but regain this ability when the disease resolves following α-MSH treatment. RPE CM from post-EAU mice treated with MC5r agonist did not recover suppression of phagolysosome activation which suggests that α-MSH causes suppression of phagolysosome activation through other melanocortin receptors or that this suppression requires other mechanisms in conjunction to MC5r stimulation. Cytokine IL-6 may be involved in RPE suppression of phagolysosome activation; however, further study will have to be done. The results demonstrate that part of the mechanisms of ocular immune privilege is the tight control by RPE of the phagocytic process in macrophages. It is possible that this contributes to ocular immune privilege minimizing the potential of processing and presenting self-proteins, and to allow for clearance of harmful materials while suppressing the activation of inflammation
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
Author Under Sail The Imagination of Jack London, 1893-1902
No full textIn Author Under Sail, Jay Williams offers the first complete literary biography of Jack London as a professional writer engaged in the labor of writing. It examines the authorial imagination in London's work, the use of imagination in both his fiction and nonfiction, and the ways he defined imagination in the creative process in his business dealings with his publishers, editors, and agents. In this first volume of a two-volume biography, Williams traverses the years 1893 to 1902, from London's "Story of a Typhoon" to The People of the Abyss. The Jack London who emerges in the pages of Author Under Sail is a writer whose partnership with publishers, most notably his productive alliance with George Brett of Macmillan, was one of the most formative in American literary history. London pioneered many author models during the heyday of realism and naturalism, blurring the boundaries of these popular genres by focusing on absorption and theatricality and the representation of the seen and unseen. London created an impassioned, sincere, and extremely personal realism unlike that of other American writers of the time. Author Under Sail is a literary tour de force that reveals the full range of London as writer, creative citizen, and entrepreneur at the same time it sheds light on the maverick side of machine-age literature.Intro -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. Spirit Truth -- 2. From Absorption to Theatricality and Back Again -- 3. "I Will Build a New Present" -- 4. Sons as Authors -- 5. Fathers as Publishers -- 6. The Daughter as Author -- 7. Lovers as Authors -- 8. At Sea with the Family -- 9. Yellow News, Yellow Stories -- 10. The Return Home -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- About Jay WilliamsIn Author Under Sail, Jay Williams offers the first complete literary biography of Jack London as a professional writer engaged in the labor of writing. It examines the authorial imagination in London's work, the use of imagination in both his fiction and nonfiction, and the ways he defined imagination in the creative process in his business dealings with his publishers, editors, and agents. In this first volume of a two-volume biography, Williams traverses the years 1893 to 1902, from London's "Story of a Typhoon" to The People of the Abyss. The Jack London who emerges in the pages of Author Under Sail is a writer whose partnership with publishers, most notably his productive alliance with George Brett of Macmillan, was one of the most formative in American literary history. London pioneered many author models during the heyday of realism and naturalism, blurring the boundaries of these popular genres by focusing on absorption and theatricality and the representation of the seen and unseen. London created an impassioned, sincere, and extremely personal realism unlike that of other American writers of the time. Author Under Sail is a literary tour de force that reveals the full range of London as writer, creative citizen, and entrepreneur at the same time it sheds light on the maverick side of machine-age literature.Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, YYYY. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries
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