117,410 research outputs found

    Schizophrenia as a systemic disorder : studies of peripheral and central biological functions

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    Psychiatric disturbances with an onset in adulthood may show subtle signs in childhood and school age. This is particularly applicable to patients with schizophrenia. A plasma membrane disturbance has been proposed as a common denominator responsible for both the central nervous system abnormalities and the changes in peripheral organs in patients with schizophrenia. The aim of the present thesis was to investigate central (neuropsychological, neurological and psychomotor) and peripheral (neuromuscular, tyrosine transport across the cell membrane) functions in schizophrenia with tyrosine kinetics as an indicator of membrane function. Another aim was to study possible familial transmission(s) of central and peripheral biological changes by investigating the occurrences of such abnormalities in unaffected first-degree relatives to the patients.Patients with schizophrenia (n = 39) their first degree- relatives (n = 44) and healthy controls (n = 55) were investigated according to the below listed studies.I. Clinical neurological investigation of neurological signs were performed. Psychomotor functions were investigated using the finger tapping, Purdue pegboard and pronation-supination tests, hand grasp strength, and gait.II. Histopathological examination of the skeletal muscle fibre was performed. The electrophysiological properties of the motor unit was studied in patients with schizophrenia and controls using the macro electromyographical (EMG) technique.III. Investigation of the muscle fibre histology and electrophysiology was performed as in study II in unaffected first-degree relatives to patients with schizophrenia.IV. Tyrosine transport (Km and Vmax) across the cell membrane was investigated in vitro using cultivated fibroblasts from patient with schizophrenia and healthy controls.V. Cognitive functions in patients with schizophrenia, their first-degree relatives and controls were assessed using an extensive battery of neuropsychological tests.Patients with schizophrenia exhibited neurological abnormalities and aberrant psychomotor performance to a significantly greater extent than healthy controls. Neuromuscular changes were found significantly more often in patients with schizophrenia and their unaffected first-degree relatives compared to controls. The most frequent histopathological finding in patients was muscle fibre atrophies, affecting both type I and type II fibres. Increased amplitude and area of the motor unit action potentials were found in the macro EMG recordings from patients and relatives but not in that from controls. The patients exhibited aberrant tyrosine transport kinetics with significantly lower Vmax (indicating lower tyrosine transport) and Km (indicating higher affinity) compared to controls. Finally, the patients performed significantly worse than their first-degree relatives and the controls in most of the neuropsychological tests and this significantly correlated with a lower level of functioning.Biological and clinical changes have been demonstrated deriving both from the central nervous system and peripheral organs indicating that schizophrenia is a systemic disease. Furthermore, the type of macro EMG findings and tyrosine transport aberrations indicate a membrane dysfunction. These results entail a different perspective on the ethiology of schizophrenia.List of scientific papersI. Flyckt L, Sydow O, Bjerkenstedt L, Edman G, Rydin E, Wiesel FA (1999). "Neurological signs and psychomotor performance in patients with schizophrenia, their relatives and healthy controls" Psychiatry Res 86(2): 113-29 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10397414II. Flyckt L, Borg J, Borg K, Ansved T, Edman G, Bjerkenstedt L, Wiesel FA (2000). "Muscle biopsy, macro EMG, and clinical characteristics in patients with schizophrenia" Biol Psychiatry 47(11): 991-9 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10838067III. Flyckt L, Wiesel FA, Borg J, Edman G, Ansved T, Sydow O, Borg K (2000). "Neuromuscular and psychomotor abnormalities in patients with schizophrenia and their first-degree relatives" J Psychiatr Res 34(4-5): 355-64 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11104850IV. Flyckt L, Venizelos N, Edman G, Bjerkenstedt L, Hagenfeldt L, Wiesel FA (2000). "Aberrant tyrosine transport across the cell membrane in patients with schizophrenia." (Submitted)V. Eriksson A, Nyman H, Flyckt L, Edman G, Bjerkenstedt L, Wiesel FA (2000). "Neuropsychological function in patients with schiziphrenia, their relatives, and normals." (Submitted)</p

    Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis

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    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

    Square Dancing with the Stars to Enhance Dynamic Hirschman Linkages?

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    In this Presidential Address, the author takes the reader on a reconnaissance of his life and time as a regional scientist. He points out scenery he found scintillating along the way, hoping that some may pick up the banner and chew on a few of the ideas for a while. He suggests a revisit to Albert O. Hirschman’s notion of key sectors and more empirical analysis related to Marcus Berliant’s and Masahisa Fujita’s notion of knowledge creation and transfer.Presidential Address, San Antonio, Texas, March 29, 2014 (53rd Meetings of the Southern Regional Science Association

    Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis

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    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

    Letter from unknown writer to Jesse L. Boyce

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    Letter to Jesse L. Boyce from unknown author (possibly Jack) about the investigation into the powder magazine located in the Grand Canyon. Some personal news is included in the letter such as the writer's marriage to the daughter of C.A. Taylor, former Supervisor of Cochise County

    Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts

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    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

    Sarah L. Blum Author Visit - Warrior Nurse: PTSD and Healing

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    Hear Sarah L. Blum, author of Women Under Fire: Abuse in the Military, discuss her newest book, Warrior Nurse: PTSD and Healing followed by a Q&A and book signing. Sarah L. Blum is a decorated Vietnam veteran who served as an operating room nurse during the intense fighting of 1967. In recognition of her service, she was awarded the Army Commendation Medal. Sponsored by CWU Veterans Center and CWU Libraries.https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/libraryevents/1252/thumbnail.jp

    Lillian L. Lambert, Author, Speaker, and Entrepreneur

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    Lillian L. Lambert, Author, Speaker, and Entrepreneu

    Letter to Alfred L. Shoemaker, February 10, 1948

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    A handwritten letter from an unknown author addressed to Alfred L. Shoemaker, dated February 10, 1948. Within, the author discusses the Pennsylvania Dutch word for Ash Wednesday, along with traditions associated with this day.https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/shoemaker_documents/1118/thumbnail.jp
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