1,720,961 research outputs found
From Wuhan to COVID-19 Pandemic: An Up-to-Date Review of Its Pathogenesis, Potential Therapeutics, and Recent Advances
No full textThe emergence of a novel human coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) causing severe contagious respiratory tract infections presents a serious threat to public health worldwide. To date, there are no specific antiviral agents available for this disease, currently known as COVID-19. Therefore, genomic sequencing and therapeutic clinical trials are being conducted to develop effective antiviral agents. Several reports have investigated FDA-approved drugs as well as in silico virtual screening approaches such as molecular docking and modeling to find novel antiviral agents. Until now, antiparasitic drugs such as chloroquine have shown the most relevant results. Furthermore, there is an urgent need to understand the pathogenesis of this novel coronavirus, its transmission routes, surface survival and evolution in the environment. So far, the scientific community has indicated a possible transmission of COVID-19 via blood transfusion which is challenging in the case of asymptomatic individuals. Protocols for pathogen inactivation are also needed. In this paper, we reviewed recent findings about this life-threatening pandemic
Antistaphylococcal Activity and Phytochemical Analysis of Crude Extracts of Five Medicinal Plants Used in the Center of Morocco against Dermatitis
No full textNovel drugs for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) hospital- and community-acquired infections are needed because of the emergence of resistance against antibiotics. In this study, methanolic and aqueous extracts of Berberis hispanica, Crataegus oxyacantha, Cistus salviifolius, Ephedra altissima, and Lavandula dentata selected from an ethnopharmacological study to treat skin infections in Sefrou city (Center of Morocco) were tested for their antistaphylococcal activity against strains often involved in cutaneous disorders: two methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus strains and one strain of Staphylococcus epidermidis using the well-diffusion assay, while the agar macrodilution method was used to determine the minimal inhibitory concentrations. The total phenolic compounds and flavonoid contents of all tested extracts were also evaluated. Three of the five methanolic extracts showed an important antibacterial activity. Berberis hispanica extract was the most active with a minimal inhibitory concentration of 04.00 mg/ml against all tested strains, followed by Cistus salviifolius and Crataegus oxyacantha extracts containing the highest amounts of total phenols (133.83 ± 9.03 and 140.67 ± 3.17 μg equivalent of gallic acid/mg of extract). However, the aqueous extracts have not shown any activity against the tested strains. The current data suggested that the most active extracts can be a good source of natural antistaphylococcal compounds and warrants further investigations to isolate bioactive molecules
Formulation of Biological Sunscreen from Calendula arvensis Capitula Extracts: Antioxidant, Anti-Aging, Surface Tension, and UVB Protection Properties Assessed
No full textSkin protection against ultraviolet (UV) radiation has long been crucial due to its role in photoaging, sunburn, and wrinkles. This study focuses on developing a bio-based sunscreen from Calendula arvensis capitula extract. Various extraction methods (maceration, sonication, and infusion) and solvents (EtOH, EtOH-H2O, and H2O) were explored in order to identify the most effective extract for use in a sunscreen formulation. Each extract was analyzed for its phenolic content, as well as antioxidant activities (assessed through DPPH, CAT, and FRAP assays). Enzyme inhibition assays for tyrosinase, elastase, and collagenase highlighted the low IC50 values of the hydroethanolic extract. Furthermore, the in vitro sun protection factor (SPF) against UVB radiation was measured using ultraviolet spectrophotometry. A phytochemical analysis showed phenolic levels between 8 and 27 mg GAE/g, flavonoid concentrations of 7–13 mg QE/g, and tannin levels of 1.15–1.68 mg/mL, alongside moderate antioxidant activity. The ethanol maceration extract reduced the interfacial tension to 2.15 mN/m in 600 s, outperforming the conventional emulsifier polysorbate 20. The sonicated hydroethanolic extract demonstrated remarkable SPF efficacy (SPF = 193.65 ± 0.02), far exceeding that of the standard zinc oxide (SPF = 11.88 ± 0.03). The proposed formulations meet the COSMOS standards, suggesting their potential for certification as biological products. Further clinical and in vivo studies are necessary to confirm their safety and commercial viability
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe 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
Get PDF“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
Get PDFWe 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
Get PDFWe 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
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