1,720,954 research outputs found
Generation and Expansion of MART-1 Antigen-Specific T Cells for Immunological Assays
No full textThis research aimed to investigate whether T cells could be engineered to recognize and eliminate cancer cells expressing the MART-1 antigen, commonly found on melanoma cells. The goal was to inform strategies for improving cancer immunotherapies by generating and expanding antigen-specific T cells in vitro. Donor T cells were thawed and transfected with MART-1 RNA to induce expression of the antigen-specific receptor. Post-transfection, Fluorescence-Activated Cell Sorting (FACS) confirmed receptor expression, and the cytotoxic activity of modified T cells was evaluated using the Incucyte live-cell imaging system. Transfection efficiency varied between batches, with 7.4% in one and 36.8% in another, resulting in limited cancer cell killing. Factors contributing to these results may include low RNA quality, poor post-thaw cell recovery, or variability in the initial donor cells. Although the experiment did not achieve full cytotoxic functionality, it highlighted key technical challenges and provided insights for optimizing T cell engineering protocols. These findings contribute to understanding how to generate and expand functional, antigen-specific T cells for potential therapeutic applications in cancer immunotherapy
Modifying Xanomeline’s Toxic Properties on Human Muscarinic Acetylcholine M1-M4 Receptors
No full textMuscarinic acetylcholine receptor agonists such as Xanomeline (C₁₄H₂₃N₃OS) have demonstrated therapeutic efficacy in schizophrenia by targeting M1 and M4 receptors, yet significant off-target interactions with M2 and M3 receptors contribute to adverse cardiovascular and urinary effects. Cobenfy is a particular drug that pairs Xanomeline with Trospium chloride to mitigate peripheral effects, yet limitations remain. This study applied computational docking and structure-based design to modify Xanomeline’s molecular architecture to enhance selectivity for M1 and M4 while reducing affinity for M2 and M3. Iterative modifications included heteroatom substitutions, polar cap additions, backbone constraints, and linker geometry adjustments. Binding affinities across receptor subtypes were evaluated using Maestro Schrodinger and ADMET analyses assessed predicted toxicity, absorption, and pharmacokinetics. Modified molecules demonstrated retained or enhanced M1/M4 binding and significantly reduced M2/M3 interactions with improved toxicity profiles. These findings suggest that rational multi-target drug design can optimize receptor selectivity and safety profiles in schizophrenia therapeutics and provide a framework for future computational and experimental follow-up
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
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