1,720,956 research outputs found
Assessment of Cytocompatibility and AntiInflammatory (Inter)Actions of Genipin-Crosslinked Chitosan Powders
Full text linkChitosan is a polysaccharide commonly used, together with its derivatives, in the preparation of hydrogel formulations, scaffolds and films for tissue engineering applications. Chitosan can be used as such, but it is commonly stabilized by means of chemical crosslinkers. Genipin is one of the crosslinkers that has been considered that is a crystalline powder extracted from the fruit of Gardenia jasminoides and processed to obtain an aglycon compound. Genipin is gaining interest in biological applications because of its natural origin and anti-inflammatory actions. In this paper, the ability of chitosan-based materials crosslinked with genipin to exert antiinflammation properties in applications such as bone regeneration was studied. Powders obtainedfrom chitosan–genipin scaffolds have been tested in order to mimic the natural degradation processes occurring during biomaterials implantation in vivo. The results from osteoblast-like cells showed that specific combinations of chitosan and genipin stimulate high permissiveness towards cells, with higher performance than the pure chitosan. In parallel, evidences from monocyte-like cells showed that the crosslinker, genipin, seems to promote slowing of the monocyte-macrophage transition at morphological level. This suggests a sort of modularity of pro-inflammatory versusanti-inflammatory behavior of our chitosan-based biomaterials. Being both the cell types exposed to microscale powders, as an added value our results bring information on the cell–material interactions in the degradative dynamics of chitosan scaffold structures during the physiological resorption processes
Genipin-cross-linked chitosan-based hydrogels: Reaction kinetics and structure-related characteristics
No full textEffects of Genipin Concentration on Cross-Linked Chitosan Scaffolds for Bone Tissue Engineering: Structural Characterization and Evidence of Biocompatibility Features
Full text linkGenipin (GN) is a natural molecule extracted from the fruit of Gardenia jasminoides Ellis according to modern microbiological processes. Genipin is considered as a favorable cross-linking agent due to its low cytotoxicity compared to widely used cross-linkers; it cross-links compounds with primary amine groups such as proteins, collagen, and chitosan. Chitosan is a biocompatible polymer that is currently studied in bone tissue engineering for its capacity to promote growth and mineral-rich matrix deposition by osteoblasts in culture. In this work, two genipin cross-linked chitosan scaffolds for bone repair and regeneration were prepared with different GN concentrations, and their chemical, physical, and biological properties were explored. Scanning electron microscopy and mechanical tests revealed that nonremarkable changes in morphology, porosity, and mechanical strength of scaffolds are induced by increasing the cross-linking degree. Also, the degradation rate was shown to decrease while increasing the cross-linking degree, with the high cross-linking density of the scaffold disabling the hydrolysis activity. Finally, basic biocompatibility was investigated in vitro, by evaluating proliferation of two human-derived cell lines, namely, the MG63 (human immortalized osteosarcoma) and the hMSCs (human mesenchymal stem cells), as suitable cell models for bone tissue engineering applications of biomaterials
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
- …
