1,720,984 research outputs found
L’infiammazione nella malattia di Alzheimer: la genetica come fattore di rischio
No full textAlzheimer’s disease is a neurodegenerative disorder determined by both genetic and environmental factors.
In the last decade, thanks to epidemiological, post-mortem and experimental studies, the evidence
was proven that the neuroinflammatory process contributes consistently in determining neuronal loss;
later studies analyzed the polymorphisms of genes involved in the regulation of the inflammatory response
searching for a genetic profile of susceptibility towards the disease.
In our study we considered two polymorphisms of the RAGE gene (-374 T/A and -429 T/C) and three
polymorphisms of the TNF-α gene (-857, -308 and -238 G/A), as both these molecules are strongly involved
in the pathogenesis of the disease.
We recruited 33 patients affected with cognitive deterioration (22 AD, 8 VaD, 3 MCI) from C. Mondino Foundation
and 220 healthy controls comparable for sex, age and rage to the population of interest.
The purpose of our research was first to determine whether any of the polymorphisms increased individual susceptibility
towards the disease, and second to verify if these polymorphisms correlated with some chosen clinical (age
of onset and rate of progression, evaluated with MMSE score) and inflammatory parameters (CRP and PINI).
The comparison of the allelic and genotypic frequencies in the population of affected and healthy controls
showed that the AG genotype of -238 G/A polymorphism of TNF-α gene was significantly more frequent
among the affected (genotypic freq. χ2=0.013; allelic freq. χ2=0.046). Then, as RAGE and TNF-α genes are
both localized on chromosome 6 in the HLA III region, we compared the haplotypic frequencies resulting
from the combination of the five polymorphisms in the group of affected and in the group of controls and
we found that the TTGAA haplotype was significantly less frequent among the affected (p-value=0.018).
No statistically significant correlation between the polymorphisms and the clinical (age of onset and rate of
progression) and inflammatory parameters (CRP and PINI) was found
Anomalie del deflusso venoso cerebrale in pazienti affetti da Sclerosi Multipla: valutazione con Doppler venoso e correlazioni cliniche
No full textBackground. Chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency (CCSVI) has recently been reported to be associated
with multiple sclerosis (MS). However, its actual prevalence, possible association with specific MS
phenotypes, and potential pathophysiological role are debated.
Method. We analysed the clinical data of 710 MS patients attending six different centres. All were submitted
to transcranial and extracranial venous Doppler sonography and diagnosed as having or not having
CCSVI according to the criteria of Zamboni et al.
Findings. CCSVI was diagnosed in 86% of the patients, but the frequency varied greatly between the centres. Greater
differences were found when considering singly the five diagnostic criteria proposed by Zamboni et al. Significant
associations with clinical data were found, the most striking being age at disease onset (about five years greater in
CCSVI-positive patients) and clinical severity (mean EDSS score about one point higher in CCSVI-positive patients).
Patients with progressive MS were more likely to have CCSVI than those with relapsing-remitting MS.
Interpretation. The methods for diagnosing CCSVI need to be refined, as the between-centre differences, particularly
in single criteria, were excessively high. Despite these discrepancies, the strong associations between
CCSVI and MS phenotype suggest that the presence of CCSVI may favour a later development of MS in patients
with a lower susceptibility to autoimmune diseases and may increase its severity
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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